


Born in the Springtime

by Little_Chickadee



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Catradora Moms, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, Magical Pregnancy, Multi, Post-Canon, Pregnancy, redemption or whatever has already happened so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 17:00:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18627448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Little_Chickadee/pseuds/Little_Chickadee
Summary: Set in the not too distant future, Catra and Adora have worked towards building a life for themselves together, and the war still rages on. All they want is to build their own family—but life seems to keep getting in the way of their plans. Although, with each other and their friends—they’ll be just fine.A little bit of an AU I guess. Compliant with S4 events.





	1. Spring Is Here

Today the weather had finally decided to become Spring-like, and a warm breeze passed by with the smell of soft dirt and the new flora beginning to blossom around the edge of the Whispering Wood. 

Catra had grown to enjoy this type of weather over her few years living outside the Fright Zone, so she was glad that the air had decided to change along with the new season rolling in. Mostly though, she was just excited to hunt the game that had come back from migrating to warmer kingdoms—specifically birds. This afternoon, Catra had taken out a bow and hunting knife to go look for any birds landing by the border of the woods she had come to settle by. She had caught two mid-sized fowl so far to cook for dinner and was quite content with her harvest for the beginning of the season. 

Walking out of the line of young trees that had regrown after her attack on Bright Moon years prior, Catra fiddled with the Bow and quiver looped over her back, and tied the birds together to make the small trek home. Through a field of low grass with barely bloomed wildflowers and onto a dirt path over a few hills, she came to the small reservoir of sparkling water coming in from Bright Moon by a bubbling creek. Crossing the little wooden bridge over the creek leading to where it pooled she reached the stone pathway that lead to her destination.

Catra enjoyed going out alone—it gave her the time she needed to clear her head and not have to deal with anyone else. 

But she was happy to be able come home.

She always kind of reveled in the feeling of having a home where she didn’t have to serve anyone else but herself, and maybe of course—Adora.

Adora could take care of herself, and Catra could take care of herself as well—but, it was funny to her how the world had shifted so that the best friends, turned mortal enemies on opposite sides of the war, had managed to get to the point in their lives they were at now. 

She didn’t need Adora, she used to tell herself, because Adora wasn’t what made her... Herself. 

Catra had worked hard with little help to get here, but now she was content to think that Adora was just part of her life, and she wanted her there by choice—not by some destined fate. 

So here she was, walking up to she and Adora’s small, dusty cottage by the edge of the woods. Where they lived together—close enough to the Castle for Adora to work with the Alliance on defeating what was left of the Horde, and far away enough for Catra to lay-low from the war if she decided the need be. 

It felt like just yesterday, Catra with Scorpia had gathered troops of young cadets and the defected to help them escape the corrupt grasps of Hordak and the ever-looming Horde Prime. They started a refugee camp called Haven in what used to be the fright Zone. 

There, they would become a quiet vendetta, loyal to their Commander Catra, acting as neutral ground. Catra had been done being manipulated, punished, and a tool to Hordak’s and even her own selfish plans—and had escaped herself with help from Princess Scorpia. 

Until Adora walked back into her life looking for her little Queen. That was the beginning of her slow but eventual, and quite frankly awkward, alliance with the rebellion in order to defeat their shared enemy, Horde Prime. 

And—also how she managed to end up married to her past best friend, (and greatest enemy).

Catra guessed that she and Adora’s time apart had helped her to realize just how strong she was on her own, and how she could make her own choices—but it also helped her to see just how she really felt about her… It wasn’t that she needed her—she was strong and she knew that now. 

Catra had simply grown to love Adora in a different way over the years, and slowly they worked through their differences to build something new.

Which ended up being the love that the two of them shared—but never got to admit in the past.

Walking in, the sparsely decorated cottage was open on the bottom floor, with a small table to sit about six people, and a sitting area that had two chairs both claimed by either Adora, or Catra. The buzzing thoughts cleared from her mind as she walked in with her somewhat bare feet on the creaking hardwood floor, that had a slight cool touch against the balls of her toes. Inside, the lights were low because the afternoon sunshine came through the windows of the small house and particles could be seen drifting about in the air. 

“I don’t think we will be needing jackets much longer, Adora—Spring finally decided to show up…”, Catra said with a smirk as she walked to where they hung up their outdoor gear by the front door.

“Well, it’s about time,” Adora called back from the small kitchen area, smiling at seeing Catra home. She had been cutting up vegetables she’d bought at the farmer’s market in town today by the castle to go with whatever Catra had managed to catch outside. 

Once Catra had hung up the bow and quiver, she put away her light jacket and then brought over the two birds and came beside her wife to start preparing them. But first—she shook out her, now short, mane of hair and tucked the cropped ends that landed by her chin into a small pony at the nape of her neck to keep it out of the way.

“How was it? Did you snag anything good today?”, Adora took a moment from cutting to ask her as Catra washed her hands in the sink.

“It was nice out… But just the usual, sorry it’s not gourmet or anything like whatever you get at all those diplomatic meetings of yours,” Catra snorted, rolling her eyes. 

“Hey, don’t be—anything you bring home is good, so… Shut up,” Adora laughed back. 

“What are you making with uh… those…?”, Catra pointed with a sneer to the veggies Adora had cut up and pushed into a nice pile.

“I was going to cook them with dinner, but if you don’t want them then it’s probably better for me anyways,” Adora sighed, “I need to stay fit, I guess,” and she laughed again. 

“You don’t need to do anything Adora, you’ve got enough going on. Nobody needs you to bench press a village or anything right now,” Catra drawled as she looked to her in the corner of her eyes.

“Well then, this little one needs to be healthy,” Adora glared back and put a hand on her abdomen almost instinctively. 

She had been pregnant for what was approaching a full 8 months now, and the time had flown by so fast Catra wasn’t sure if either one of them felt ready to welcome someone new into the world yet. 

It had been a mutual agreement—to have a kid. Both of them wanted to have the distraction of a family while the world of Etheria continued to be a consistent mess, but also she and Adora had expressed anxiety over their past issues with Shadow Weaver growing up. Neither one of them wanted to become parents that inflicted damage like she had, but they couldn’t let that stop them if they really wanted a kid—because they needed to decide soon if they’d ever have a child, due to the constant change of climate from the war. 

Catra turned out to be good with kids, since she could be energetic and fun, but she could also be stern or protective when needed. They’d both found that out by working with the younger refugees of the Horde, and started to grow fascinated by the families that took in the orphaned cadets. Adora wasn’t quite sure how she was with kids yet, but she trusted Catra when she said she’d be a ‘good influence’ on a child.

They had talked about adopting night after night, with all the children being misplaced by the war. They wanted to give a child something that they themselves never were quite granted as children. But, Adora in the past few years had been learning more about her lineage and the She-Ra line. She remembered anxiously rambling to Catra about how she never wanted to pass down such a rigorous legacy to uphold—but she wasn’t sure if they were going to end the war anytime soon and they had to be ready to pass down her power to channel and control Etheria’s magical energy to somebody younger.

She remembered crying about it in bed at night… Adora had figured that she was a special case, but She-Ra was passed down directly or indirectly by bloodline—specifically Eternian blood. No one else in the world but she, or the First Ones, could pass down the power she held. Or at least, that’s all she knew up until Light Hope disappeared when the sword broke.

So, she came to the decision herself, that she’d be willing to carry out having her own baby—despite Catra’s constant nagging. 

She would tell her, “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Adora. You have a choice…”, except Adora didn’t really feel like she did at this point. Adora knew deep down that she could never truly be free from the destiny the First Ones had written for her thousands of years ago. 

All they knew is that they’d love any child that came to be theirs—they’d promised.

Catra was still gutting the birds with her knife and she snorted as she got back to work at Adora’s answer. “Sure, sure, we don’t want a wimpy kid now do we,” she nudged her wife. 

“Hey—don’t say that!”, Adora giggled back at her.

“Alright, sorry—didn’t mean it.”

“I know.”

They had fallen into their usual banter pretty easily tonight, sometimes they could be pretty quiet after a busy day. 

“How are you feeling? I mean, how are meetings going back in Bright Moon…”, Catra asked as she cleaned up her mess. 

“Oh, uh I feel… I feel okay I guess,” Adora got quieter for a moment and Catra felt the urge to probe a bit.

“More specific?”, she arched her brows.

Adora took a breath in and sighed for a moment before thinking of what she wanted to say like she does often when she’s got something on her mind, “I don’t know, I guess I’ve been tired lately… And I don’t like being in the meetings for the Alliance and getting to sit there for hours to only then watch everyone go fight it out, without me there to back them up. I feel... Useless.”

Catra was done cleaning the birds and set them to roast over the fire for a couple hours in the hearth by the kitchen and the table. Once she was done she patted Adora’s shoulder and rubbed it with her thumb, “You just have to trust that they’ll be okay, Adora. Just have faith in them—I think you still underestimate everyone.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Adora leaned on the counter top.

“Don’t be. You’re just frustrated that you don’t get to go have fun going on missions with your princess friends,” Catra tried to lighten the mood with a smirk. “And remember—you aren’t useless. And you don’t need to constantly be useful to everyone.”

“Yeah, I didn’t want to admit it, but you’re right,” her wife gave a small laugh and Catra slipped her hand off her shoulder, and Adora kinda wished the reassuring touch could’ve lasted longer.

She moved from the counter to put the veggies in a in a pan to simmer over the fire while Catra grabbed two glasses for water out of the cupboard—and now all they had to do was wait. Adora quietly tried to stretch out her achy back, but Catra still noticed.

“Are you sore?”, she asked while filling up the glasses at the sink.

“Maybe a bit, but I’m fine—I swear,” Adora shot her a small smile in hopes she’d drop it but her attempt was futile. 

“Let’s just sit for a bit while we wait for stuff to cook then, it’s been a long day for both of us,” she offered a glass to Adora.

“Catra, really I’m al—“, she managed to get out while taking the water from her hand before being interrupted.

“No—Adora, c’mon just sit down for like five minutes and give yourself a break. I mean it,” Catra furrowed her brows at Adora and she knew that Catra wasn’t going to let this go, so she was ready to give in to temptation as she felt a small kick against the skin on her stomach tell her that it was about time she finally sat down for the night.

“Okay, fine—you win,” she sighed and Catra pulled her along as they sat together in their little sitting space on the other side of the room, for more like an hour or two, rather than a few minutes.

Dinner can wait.


	2. I Can’t Sleep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra wakes up in the middle of the night to go make some tea.

Adora’s back had been screaming at her for what felt like hours now, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold onto her sanity without telling Catra she needed help. 

All she wanted was to sleep for a few hours before having to get up in the morning… 

She wasn’t entirely sure if the overwhelming ache of her body was worse than her frequent night terrors she still had nightly, but it was coming close to that. Adora shifted under the covers of their bed to try a get comfortable for what felt like the fiftieth time that night and considered that maybe she was slightly over doing it a bit. Maybe—she shouldn’t have walked into town to the the farmer’s market after sitting for hours in a hard chair at back to back meetings. 

All she knew was that she didn’t really want to fess up about the pain she’d been feeling lately because she was sure Catra would insist that she stay at home rather than help out. She already felt slightly vulnerable in her position, and just wanted to prove that she was strong enough to manage everything at once. She could hang on for a little bit longer, maybe even wait until the baby was due—she didn’t want to bother worrying Catra anyways.

The persistent ache spread around her lower back in throbs and as she tried to shift, it spiked in jabs of pain through her spine and hips, almost causing her to let out a sharp hiss at how sore she felt. Stifling a groan, Adora managed to flip around and wrap her arms around Catra at her side—she had found that it was hard to get comfortable when you couldn’t exactly lie on you stomach. She pressed her face into her shirt, in hopes of ignoring the now slightly dull throb slowly eating away at her, by focusing on Catra’s radiating warmth. Curled up together against the mattress, Adora felt Catra move slightly against her and she opened her eyes to find that she had turned her head to look at her, and she took a hand to push back Adora’s hair framing her face.

“What’s wrong, Princess?”, she sighed out, hoarse from sleep.

“Nothing—I’m just having a hard time falling asleep tonight, don’t worry about it, please,” Adora mumbled sticking her face back into Catra’s chest.

“You won’t stop moving around, and you’re still wide awake, of course I’m going to worry about it, stupid—what’s keeping you up?”, Catra looked concerned and pushed further. 

“I’m fine really,” Adora said barely audible from Catra’s nightshirt.

Catra furrowed her brows and groaned a bit, “Adora, look at me. You’re doing it again—just tell me what’s going on and don’t act like you’re just trying to cover something up,” she said firmly. 

Adora grumbled quietly, and Catra sighed again as she moved her hand down Adora’s back to rub slow circles—until Adora suddenly picked up her face and let out a small hiss of a breath. 

‘So that’s what was keeping her up’, Catra thought.

“You’re sore aren’t you?”, she asked again.

Adora slowly nodded her head without saying anything.

“How bad?”

Adora squeezed her eyes shut and pulled Catra closer as she let out a small groan.

“Okay—so pretty bad I’m going to guess.”

Adora nodded again.

“How long have you been hurting?”, she hoped for an answer from Adora this time.

She lifted her head back up slightly, hair falling back into her face, “A while now, but tonight it’s been worse,” she scowled to herself.

“Were you going to tell me?”, Catra tried but failed to not sound frustrated.

“No”, Adora shook her head.

“Of course not, it’s you I’m talking to. I should’ve paid more attention because—ugh, you do this all the time,” Catra pinched the bridge of her nose and squeezed her eyes shut. 

“I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry, I just—I just don’t want to complain about it,” Adora said softly. 

“I know you don’t, that’s just you. But Adora, you have to quit this—you gotta tell me these things! You’re the one who’s lived here the longest, you should know it’s not weak!”, Catra whisper yelled, not directly at Adora but she just wanted to get the point across. 

“I’m sorry,” she replied.

“Adora, don’t be, I get it,” Catra sighed. She looked around for a moment before looking back down to Adora, thinking. “Hey, do you remember the basket Razz gave us a while ago?”

“Yeah, it was a house warming present with a bunch of food and herbs from the woods…”, Adora turned her face to the side resting on her cheek, blinking at Catra.

“Well yeah, but it has this tea that I’ve used before, I think it was back when I dislocated my shoulder while I transformed..? The herbs it has in it soothe pain so you can sleep—I’ll go get you some. It’ll help,” she explained.

“Tea?”, Adora gave her a weary look. 

“Yeah, I’ll go make you some tea… Just try to stay here and get somewhat comfortable for a few minutes,” Catra breathed out and stretched beside Adora before she moved to get up. Suddenly the bed felt much more like a vast, cold sea of bed sheets.

“Catraaaa…”, she groaned as her wife left her alone in the bed.

“Adoraaaaaa…”, Catra parroted back at Adora. “I’ll be quick, I promise—then, we sleep.”

“You promise?”, she sounded like she was a child again.

“Promise,” Catra said quietly before ruffling Adora’s messy ponytail and slipping downstairs silently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll probably rush updating this I like this story so we’ll see how fast I run out pre-written stuff!  
> Hope you like the fluff :)  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!


	3. Morning With You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra convinces Adora that maybe it’s time for her to stay home for a bit.

Once Adora had slowly sipped down the warmth of the tea that Catra brought back upstairs for her, her muscles in her back relaxed and sleep pulled her into a dark embrace, tucked up next to Catra in bed for comfort.

It was like they were simply designed to sleep together, almost like puzzle pieces that were unique and different from one another—but they needed each other to not quite be complete per se… But if they stuck together they could make something more. 

At least, that’s what Adora liked to think when they would wake up in the mornings—accidentally intertwined.

Now she felt the sun peek through her eyelids and warm her face through the window of their room in their home. It brought warmth to her fingers on the bed sheets, as she ran her hand over them. The wrinkling of the comforter as she carefully shifted on the mattress and the feeling of her hair, now loose, softly falling into her face. Her hand soon found Catra’s and she cracked open her eyes to see the sun had come above the trees, broken through the windows, and shone through thin curtains that didn’t completely hide them. It landed in her eyes, but the light felt good on her cheeks. The rays of sunshine also traveled along Catra’s body under the covers in streaks. Her ears twitched from the warm sensation and her freckles shone in the light.

It felt like it had taken Adora forever to get here—and here, was where Adora was meant to be all along.  
She pulled Catra closer and gripped her hand—intertwining fingers. She looked at the silver ring she wore on one of her fingers—it held a promise between them. 

Catra groaned as the sun began to slip through her eyelids as well, and she stirred against Adora, trying to readjust herself and then giving up and settling back down. 

“Hey—“, Adora hushed.

A quiet moment passed and Adora wondered if she even heard her or just decided to ignore her.

“Heeey, ‘doraaa…”, the other girl slowly muffled, face smushed into her pillow.

“Good morning to you too,” she smiled. 

“Ummmhmmmmmm…”, was all she got back as a reply.

She pulled her other arm out from under Catra a bit and brought it up to her back and shoulders, rubbing small circles in between her shoulder blades like Catra had done for her last night. 

“Do you...wanna get up?”, she asked her. 

“No,” Catra mumbled.

“Oh,” Adora yawned, “then I guess I’m stuck here… On this bed… Forever… Waiting... ”, Adora joked, mostly because she was still a bit sore and was hoping for a little help getting out of bed and downstairs—though she still didn’t want to admit it.

“‘Kay then,” Catra reaffirmed, and didn’t make any effort to get up.

Adora stayed tucked into bed in the blissful morning quiet, thinking and looking around their room. ‘Would they get any sleep in here when the baby comes?’, the thought popped into her head. Maybe they should set something up in here—next to the bed, so they don’t have to go far… She absentmindedly rubbed her thumb over the taught skin of her stomach, almost as if the little one inside would notice and wake up too. 

A small kick, pressed up by her ribs, reminded Adora why it was better to not coax the baby into exercising early in the morning by using her bladder or other organs as punching bags. It also made her think about getting up and heading to the castle to help out for the day—in anyway they would let her without She-Ra.

Adora decided she’d push herself out of bed, or at least try to. Her toned muscles strained as she pushed herself onto her elbows and she was about to sit up, but Catra grasped onto her wrist, halting her attempt.

“And where do you think you’re going?”, she questioned arching a brow over her one open eye glaring at her.

“To get ready for the day—there’s stuff that I need to get done, Catra…”, Adora sighed as she wiggled free of Catra’s grasp and finally managed to sit up.

“It can wait, you know,” she smirked.

“You can never know that,” the blonde tried to retort but it came out more sorrowful than she meant it to.

“Adora,” Catra sat up drawing a breath, “we’ve lived for a thousand years without a She-Ra, they can wait more than nine months—let alone at least give you a few weeks, before you to go back to frolicking around Etheria with your little alliance. You don’t need to do anything for them.”

“You say that but, you haven’t been on the front lines in a while,” she whispered back, accidentally thinking out loud.

“Ouch,” Catra drawled clutching her chest.

Adora was caught off guard for a second and scowled to herself, “I mean—I didn’t mean to say that. You’ve been working hard too, fixing things. But I’m She-Ra—my fate is to fight, and right now… I don’t know if I could even transform if needed to. So, I have to be there for the Rebellion to help in whatever way I can, even if you don’t agree.”

“I know,” Catra turned to look out the window and then back to her wife, “but I’m drawing the line—you should stay at home right now unless you absolutely have to go out,” she sighed. “Adora, you’re due in weeks and you’re overworking yourself. I know I’m talking to the most thick-headed, voluntary martyr in all of Etheria, but you should know better by now.”

“I do know… and ouch, that was hurtful on purpose—not fair,” Adora took a breath in and held it before letting it back out and grasped the sheets beneath her palms, “I know I may have overdone it yesterday, but I’m still very capable of at least being there. But—you’re right. I guess I’ve just been so distracted by the war I’ve forgotten how little time we have until things get more complicated…”

“Can you really call war a distraction when it’s been a part of our lives for as long as we can remember, Adora?”, Catra gave a half-hearted laugh.

“I don’t know, but I’m failing miserably at focusing on the fact that we need to figure out what the strategy for the next few weeks is going to be—not just planning the next move against the Horde”, her lips drew into a hard line, like they did when her mind spiraled into anxious thoughts.

“So, let the council know you need to stay home—they owe you, not you owe them,” Catra reasoned, getting up from the bed to stretch beside where Adora sat. “They can’t deny a pregnant woman, let alone the She-Ra… Either that, or I’ll slash their throats and I’d like to see them try to do it again…”

“Thanks—but please don’t hurt them, the council is made up of my friends,” Adora gave her a little smile and a small laugh. 

“Ugh, fine—you’re still no fun,” Catra rolled her eyes and smirked.

Adora sat at the edge of the bed with her for a moment just to mentally sort things out. She guessed that staying home was probably for the best unless an emergency came up that she was needed for—until then, Catra was right, she needed to have faith that they’d be fine without her. 

Just when she figured she’d try to get up and onto her feet, she felt another jab from the baby but to the bladder this time. She didn’t mean to, but she let out a small sound of surprise and brought her hand to rest on her stomach as if it could tell the little person inside to calm down. ‘Great,’ she thought, ‘now I’m really going to have to get up to use the bathroom.’ They seemed to be getting more and more energetic, and especially excited to come out—and Adora was starting to think she couldn’t agree more.

“Getting feisty are we?”, Catra’s smirk from before had softened into a smile, and she glared down at her from where she stood in front of her.

“Yeah, it’s good they’re moving around—but I’d rather they learn to train with us out here rather than blindly roundhousing my organs,” Adora held out her hands for Catra to take into hers and pull her up and off the bed.

“They’ll make a good lil’ fighter,” she giggled in her quiet, high pitched cackle as they stood to make their way down the stairs.

“I hope so,” Adora huffs out, before she went straight to the bathroom before anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m going to run out of updates before I have more... Aren’t I...  
> Anyways I’m enjoying this so I hope you guys do too.  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!!!


	4. Sitting Here Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Catra share memories while tidying up a room for the baby.

“When do we need to go to Mystacor next?”, Catra asked as they finished up cleaning the small room next to theirs that the baby would be sleeping in, or so they were hoping.

Adora sat on the floor sorting out fairy tales and Etherian mythology books she’d gathered from her time traveling around and from staying in the castle, placing them on a bookcase by a small wooden rocking chair made and gifted to her by Bow’s Dads—who were highly supportive of she and Catra’s endeavor.

“Should be sometime next week, Angella said that the healers there want to check up on me before the due date,” she looked up from the books, “what’s up?”

“I don’t know—I just don’t like going to Mystacor, even though I know we need to go to make sure everything’s fine and all with the baby, but, I can’t help but get a sucky feeling whenever we go,” Catra grumbled.

“I know what you mean,” Adora admitted.

“Does… Does it ever just—remind you? You know, of her?”, two mismatched colored eyes caught Adora’s and flashed a slight glimpse of vulnerability.

Her... She knew who she meant.

Shadow Weaver. 

“Yeah, everytime. I still feel like she’s there haunting us…”, she shivered slightly.

Catra took a breath in, “I still regret not getting more answers from her, or just trying to talk,” she quietly breathed out.

Adora stayed quiet, but nodded—she didn’t really want to contribute anymore to where this was going mainly because the two women had discussed it so many times and it never ceased to lead them anywhere good.

Shadow Weaver had manipulated and abandoned Catra, while she stalked and obsessed over Adora—they tried to leave that in the past now.

“It’s just… All the sorcerers and magic surrounding that place makes me anxious I guess. Just, don’t go around telling your friends that,” Catra explained quietly after feeling Adora hesitate to respond.

“I know, but… Without people like them, or magic, we wouldn’t be having a kid soon. I just try to, um, look at it that way,” she tried to take a different route around the subject this time to try and avoid the endless pit-fall topic that was Shadow Weaver.

“Well—I guess I never thought of it that way,” her wife hummed back. Gladly, Adora shot her a smile.

Still smiling she brought up her hand with her golden ring, “We promised we wouldn’t be like her, and I know we can keep that promise—because this says that we promised that we’d never ever break another promise, ever again. And, I’ll never leave you, or our kid. If… If that’s what you’re worried about.”

Catra gave Adora her rare, genuine, soft smile and looked at her silver ring on her own finger, as if trying to string together how in all of Etheria to two of them managed to come back to one another in the end… Or what was at least the end of an era for them if not the war, sadly enough.

“Heh ‘Dora, do you remember how this all started?”, Catra asked softer than she usually talks, coming over to sit beside Adora on the woven rug on the wooden floor.

Adora snorted, “Of course I do, I was absolutely terrified!”

“That seems like something you don’t often admit,” Catra taunted.

“Well yeah, but… this was something that in all my life I never had even dreamed of happening to me, or us in fact,” the blonde looked down at the floor, blushing.

* * *

About 8 Months Ago...

 

“I cannot believe we just did that,” Adora had said as she laid back on their bed, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling as if it would crumble and fall on them if she dared to take her eyes off of it.

“You know,” Catra hummed, “I must’ve asked you—hmmmm… Say a thousand plus times in the past month,” Catra put up finger quotes to emphasize, “Hey Adora! Are you sure you really want to do this?”, she imitated her own voice. “And, everytime, you’d say something like, oh it’s fiiiine, Catra! I can do this, how hard could it be? I just want you to know for the future record that you brought this on yourself and I gave you a choice!”

“I know you did,” Adora groaned, still staring particularly hard off into space, “thank you.”

“You’re very welcome,” Catra huffed before she flopped down beside her exhausted wife on the bed.

They had spent their whole day traveling to Mystacor, to stay there for hours on end, and then travel back home late at night.

There, Catra and she had met up with Glimmer’s Auntie Casta, who Angella had recommended Adora talk to about figuring out an old spell or procedure that could aid them in having their own child.

“Isn’t creating life from nothing, like—really difficult?”, Catra had asked Castaspella suspiciously, as they discussed some of the old tomes from the archives that mentioned more complex spells and rituals that could help someone create a life.

“Well, my dear, we wouldn’t be creating life from nothing—you see… Since Adora has volunteered to carry the child, she’d be the one creating the life herself. Just as any normal mother would,” Casta explained carefully.

“So there’s no catch?”, Catra eyed her with caution.

“No side effects, no catches. You two just need to give me a part of yourselves, such as a few drops of your blood—it has proven to be the most proficient in avoiding miscarriages in the past,” the sorceress tried to ease Catra’s worries but she still felt as if this whole plan that Adora was okay with making, was a terrible idea considering their past trauma with magic.

It was like playing with fire—and normally Catra was all for taking risks, but, as of late—all things had been becoming far too sentimental for her liking for her to risk losing them.

“I want to do it,” Adora spoke up—sounding more determined than she actually felt. “Are you okay with this, Catra? It’s your choice now…”, Adora swallowed nervously, after answering almost too quickly for herself to consider backing out of her own decision, set in stone.

“I’m fine with it—as long as none of you end up hurting her, or our potential kid…”, Catra scowled.

“Don’t worry—the two of you. We will look after you both as everything progresses, as this isn’t a common procedure. But, I’m sure Angie wouldn’t send you here if she didn’t trust my healers… Alright then,” Castaspella clapped her hands together, “let’s begin.”

Now, back on the bed, Adora was spent and nauseous from the numerous spells her body had been subjected to by the healers, and Catra was almost just as tired and anxious from standing by—just watching.

“What am I supposed to do now?”, Adora asked, her voice slightly waivering with a slight edge of fear.

Catra turned her head from the ceiling to look at her wife, “I guess, we just have to wait and see, Adora…”, she told her as she took her limp hand and intertwined their fingers.

* * *

“Heh, I guess you’re right”, Catra continued, laughing at Adora’s slight blush. “What about when you found out it had worked? Now that—that was wild!”, she said in a snarky tone.

Adora’s blush deepened with embarrassment at the memory, and she swatted Catra’s arm with a story book from a pile on the floor. “We agreed we wouldn’t talk about that, ever again!”, she began to shove Catra and mess up her loose bangs, and she playfully pushed back.

“You mean when you found out because you had horrible morning sickness? Because you know, that’s one of my new favorite stories to tell!”, she snorted, raising an eyebrow.

“You wouldn’t dare!”, Adora finally knocked Catra over with another push and she fell to the floor giggling.

“You thought I wouldn’t?”, she cackled as her short, untamed hair fanned out wildly across the floor while Adora pinned her down.

* * *

The world seemed to tilt violently in Adora’s head as she nearly knocked over her chair in the war room, with a loud screech of the legs against the floor. With a hand clasped firmly over her mouth she bolted for the double doors keeping her from the corridor outside, with all the eyes of her friends wildly following her out the doors.

She felt horrible for having to get up so suddenly in the middle of whatever Angella and her crowned queen-daughter had been discussing for the past hour—but she only felt worse sitting in her chair trying to stare at one point on the wall to keep her head from swimming, she wasn’t even listening by that point. She had known waking up that she didn’t feel well, and yet she still got up at the crack of dawn to come here—and then to only start feeling worse before the meeting had even started.

Still, she managed to clumsily sprint down the halls until she could find somewhere to hide.

She had to hide.

Her heart pumped wildly in her ears, as she wasn’t sure how much longer she could last until she found the corridor that housed her old room. She sprinted the rest of the way and fiddled with the door handle with shaky hands until she was able to open the door into the sweet refuge of her own room. Seeing the pink walls should have calmed her nerves, but the bile rising in her mouth told her otherwise.

Rushing into the bathroom, she didn’t bother to close the door, and sat down on her knees on the cold tile—it slightly grounded her swimming head.

Yet, she still wasn’t ready for the next wave of nausea that washed over her.

She leaned on the toilet and she stared into it like it was her greatest foe yet, and she squeezed her eyes shut and clenched the sides hard with white knuckles.

Oh no, no, no—there was no way she was dealing with this today!

She didn’t want it to come to this—but she knew she couldn’t hold it back any longer as her muscles twinged. She retched hard and leaned forward as she coughed up the contents of her stomach from this morning. She felt terrible—and it didn’t stop. She kept retching until there wasn’t anything left for her to throw up, and bile lined her throat.

Her hands shook, and tears began to drip down her cheeks and chin, because it began to hurt—and she just wanted it to stop so she could go back to the meeting like nothing had ever happened.

Either that, or curl up and hide like she always did.

She must have been sitting there for a little less than an hour before they found her, hunched over the toilet in her old bathroom. Glimmer had pushed open the door the rest of the way after coming into her room, and gasped in surprise to find her friend tear stained and shaking wildly.

“Bow, I found her! Don’t come in—go get my mom, please,” she had shouted behind her shoulder, before sitting down beside Adora and pulling back her hair that had fallen out of its ponytail.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked worriedly.

“I don’t know, but—just please go get my mom, now!”, she called back putting a hand on Adora’s shoulder. “Adora, you’re hiding again—are you sick?”, she asked gently.

Adora wanted to answer but she was nervous to open her mouth, so she had opted to nod her head instead.

“For how long?”, Glimmer pushed when she inched Adora back to sit on the cool tile of the floor, as she took care of the mess and got a washcloth to dampen.

Adora took in a deep breath to test whether she was stable or not, and let it out shakily, “I’m not sure, but I didn’t feel well when I got up early this morning…”

Glimmer came over with a cool, damp washcloth from the sink and sat down beside Adora patting her lap. Adora gratefully took the invitation and slowly laid down against her and closed her eyes when Glimmer took the cloth and pressed it against her forehead.

“And you still came anyways?”, Glimmer laughed.

“Of course I did,” Adora mumbled.

“You didn’t even tell Catra?”, she sounded slightly surprised.

“No, I don’t want her to worry about me,” Adora said even quieter.

“Adora, that’s her job now—to worry about you… First Ones, you guys have been married for a over a year, that’s longer than Bow and I have been together!”, Glimmer held her arm firmly as she tried to speak some sense into her.

“I know, it won’t happen again—sorry,” Adora tried meekly.

“I don’t think it will…”, Glimmer’s tone changed, so Adora opened her eyes to find that Bow had appeared and stood outside behind a worried Angella and a frazzled Catra.

“You called Catra?”, Adora murmured as she slowly sat up to face them.

“They did call me, princess,” Catra rolled her eyes and came down to kneel in front of Adora, “because I’m taking you home.”

“I’m fine now—promise,” Adora retorted quickly, trying to get up on her feet, but her knees trembled heavily as she did so.

“Obviously not—sorry Adora, but I think we have some explaining to do with your friends, and it’s probably better if we talk about it first,” she reached out and slipped Adora’s arm over her shoulders and laced her arm around Adora’s waist to walk her out.

Slowly they made it out of her old room and into the corridor, and walked their way out of the castle together. Bow and Glimmer hung behind concerned. While on the other hand, Angella knew exactly what was going on and caught Catra’s attention from beside her.

“If you need any help,” she looked at her face sternly, “please feel free to come by the infirmary and we will take care of anything you two need—or come to me with questions. You should tell them soon,” the retired queen whispered and nodded behind her to Bow and Glimmer, “so they don’t worry.”

Catra was a bit shaken by the kindness but pondered it anyways, “We’ll be fine—and we’ll tell them when we are ready,” she hissed in her usual manner.

“I believe in you,” Angella smiled, “now please make sure that girl gets some rest…”, she said a bit louder.

“Please, your majesty—don’t make this anymore embarrassing than it already is…”, Adora piped up.

Angella laughed shortly, “We only coddle you out of care, Adora…”, she stopped at the door to the outside and waved them off as Glimmer and Bow escorted them out to Catra’s disdain.

* * *

“Well, personally—I hate that memory,” Adora shifted uncomfortably.

“What about it? Running out of a war meeting to vomit, or needing to have Arrow boy call me to come pick you up?”, Catra snickered and shot her a daring look.

“It’s Bow! And yes—all of that!”, she accidentally shouted.

“I know, that’s why it’s my favorite,” she smirked.

“You’re awful, you know,” Adora retorted.

“You’re dumb, princess,” she fired back.

Adora smiled despite the hurtful comment and giggled at their stupid banter that they always resort to.

“Ouch”, she flinched.

“Yeah, ouch indeed…”, Catra drawled.

“No—like ouch, actual ouch,” Adora grumbled.

“What’s wrong,” Catra instantly sat up and looked a bit worried.

“S’nothing… they just kicked a bit too hard and it caught me off guard,” she sighed as she put a hand to her stomach.

“Adora—you’re off your game! You have to fight back!”, Catra joked to try and lighten the mood back up.

“I’m not fighting them—more importantly because it’ll end up hurting me too since they’re stuck with me!”, she snorted.

Catra snorted back and smiled for a moment before looking a bit distant, and Adora noticed.

“Hey, what’s up—I can tell you’re thinking, you’ve got that face you get when you do,” she asked.

“Maybe, um, could I feel?”, Catra said apprehensively.

Adora was surprised, “Oh, sure!”, she took Catra’s hand in hers and scooched over closer to where she sat next to her, slightly rolling up her tunic. “Come here, they like to punch me here just about everyday, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to feel something there…”

Catra mindfully placed her hand down gently on Adora’s skin and waited, holding her breath, to see if the baby would react.

A small press against her hand made a small sound escape her mouth without meaning to.

“Hey, you got a nice one—usually when I feel, they like to be pretty mean about it,” Adora laughed, and Catra got another slight press against her palm.

“That’s—kinda weird,” she admitted drawing her hand away, “but I really liked that…”, she laughed too.

Adora smiled, “Do you remember telling everybody about them? Now that’s my favorite story…”, her smile turned into a smirk.

“OOooh, you mean the sickly sweet story—of course the sappy one is your favorite,” she teased.

“Well yeah—duh, what else do you expect from me,” Adora leaned back on her hands and rested there.

“Honestly, not much more than that,” she leaned back again and mirrored Adora’s position.

* * *

“I’m so nervous—I think I’m going to throw up Catra, I don’t know…”

“Adora, you already did that before we even left to come here…”

“Then I’ll just have to throw up again I guess, because I don’t know if I can—“

“Ah, ah, ah—don’t say that, because you flat out told Angella just a few days ago, so I have proof you can do it,” Catra snipped at her and raised an eyebrow—smirking.

They were both walking into a strategy meeting, down the corridor. Adora had brought Catra along, because today they planned to bring up the fact that She-Ra might be out of commission for a while… And possibly also mention the fact that the two of them were going to have a baby…

“That was different, that was involuntary and she already knew anyways! Now, we have to tell my friends, the council, and then everyone will know—“, Adora rambled anxiously.

Catra stopped her from walking by turning and putting her hands on her shoulders, “Adora! It’ll be fine! They all love you, and appreciate you, and friendship and stuff… So, I’d highly doubt they’d be angry at you for making a big life changing choice with your significant other!” Adora made an uneasy sound, as if she wasn’t convinced—Catra sighed. “Look, we are going to go in there, and just say what we need to—and then we can go home. So just, breathe and don’t collapse or something…”

Adora tried to calm down, and took a large breath in, and then released it slowly, “Okay, I trust you.”

Catra gave her a small grin, “Good.”

After most of the meeting had commenced—and Adora’s anxiety levels had been raised to the highest marks—Angella cut in, “Adora and Catra—you had something you two had wished to bring up today,” the mother nodded encouragingly towards them. “And Commander Catra—a pleasure to have you here today…”, She said trying to be open to the young woman whom she still didn’t quite understand—albeit she wanted to for Adora’s sake.

“No need for the flattery, your highness,” Catra said unenthusiastically and sat up slightly next to Adora. She noticed how Adora looked pale as a ghost, and was obviously working through her script in her head of what she was going to say—although it all seemed to have disappeared in her mind.

Catra decided to help her get out of her head, and started off for her, “I know I chose to stay away from your business here in the Rebellion, but today I’m here with Adora to talk to you about some important news—right, Adora..?”, she drawled, and nudged her wife with her elbow in the arm. There was a slight sense of satisfaction at the surprised noise Adora made in response.

“Oh! Well um—yes…”, she took a breath in and held it there, “Well we wanted to discuss that, uh, She-Ra might be out of commission for a the next few months…”

Glimmer eyed her up and down worriedly, “Adora, is everything okay?”

“Is something wrong with your powers?”, Bow added—the same look as the young queen was written all over his face while everyone quietly watched.

“No, nothing is wrong—everything is under control, for now at least, but um… It’s a bit different than what you might think, I guess—“, Adora started to ramble and pick at her fingers in her lap but Catra cut her off before she ran out of words to stall with by putting a sturdy hand on her shoulder.

“Adora and I are having a baby—and She-Ra is benched from now on because we don’t know the risk she’ll have on our kid if Adora transforms.”

Everyone was quietly looking at Catra in different stages of surprise after a moment's pause gave everyone time to register what she had said, while Angella simply put her face in her hands to hide a slight grin as to not embarrass Adora more than she already was.

Adora finally managed to breathe out after the lengthy pause, “I’m pregnant…”

Everyone at the war table was still quietly processing for another minute, and Adora had begun to panic slightly.

That is—until Bow stood up, got out of his chair, walked over to where Adora sat, and pulled her up and into the strongest hug he could possibly muster. After a second, she swore she could hear sniffles.

“Awwww… Adora, the bleeding heart is crying…”, Catra smirked, giving him a good pat on the head he had pressed against Adora.

Adora squeezed him, feeling a bit less tense, “Aw, Bow—don’t cry!”

“I c-can’t help it, this is the sweetest thing I’ve gotten to witness since you t-two got married!”, his voice wavered.

“Yuck, I think you’re oozing sap all over the floor bud…”, Catra teased.

“YOU TWO ARE HAVING A BABY!”, Glimmer finally registered, her mouth open and her eyes wide as she stood up at the table, slamming her palms onto it’s surface.

Adora and Catra both nodded their heads in reply, Bow still recovering in Adora’s grasp.

“H-how? This—this is so… Amazing! Congrats, I can’t believe it!”, the queen stuttered as she moved her hands around sporadically.

“It’s all thanks to your mom, your aunt—and magic, Sparkles…”, Catra snorted.

“WHAT—she… You knew?”, she turned to her mother at the head of the table—who was now smiling uncontrollably.

“Yes, I did know—but they wanted to tell you themselves, no matter how long it took them to finally decide to do it,” Angella laughed quietly.

Glimmer glanced back at the pair, “Hey—not my fault, Adora was the one getting all worked up about it!”, Catra snapped as she glared back at the young queen, and her mother.

* * *

Adora smiled at the memory, feeling both Bow and Glimmer hugging her—and all the kind words of encouragement they’d given her throughout the entire ordeal. They’d make great… Godparents..? Or would they be, an aunt and uncle? Adora wasn’t quite sure.

Although, now she was sure of a few things after thinking back with Catra.

“Hey, Catra?”, she broke the peaceful quiet that had surrounded them and where they sat on the floor of the baby’s room.

“What’s up?”, Catra tilted her head towards Adora.

“I think I know what I want to do—for a plan…”, she twisted and untwisted her hands together, thinking.

“And what might that be?”, Catra sat up to listen.

“I think, I want to be at the castle when it’s time… I’ll feel the most comfortable there with Bow and Glimmer around, with you,” Adora spoke quietly, “also Angella will be there, and maybe Casta can come from Mystacor to help so we don’t have to even think about going there, and we can stay in my old room for the time being—“, Adora continues to list.

“Hey, princess—“ Catra stopped her with a hand slightly grasping her knee, “sounds like a plan,” she gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Adora snorted at the comment, “Thank you,” she said as she smiled and sighed out a long breath, before leaning in to place the last book on the small shelf, and earning a small kiss on the cheek from Catra as she did so. Pulling back, she was smirking like she always did.

They can do this—they have a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still not dead—got a lot to finish!  
> I’m just very very busy eeeee  
> Enjoy!!!
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!


	5. The Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora gets an unexpected wake up call.

Catra sunk into the warm sheets of the bed as she listened to the sound of Spring rain come down outside their windows, and onto the ground. The sky was cloudy and a light grey, making the atmosphere of their room a bit darker than usual—and seem all the more warm and enticing rather than the outside world, at the moment.

Adora clung to her side and she could hear her soft breaths puff in and out, close to her face. Catra’s body rumbled slightly while she slept and it gave Adora some comfort as it seemed to get harder and harder to sleep at night with the baby on the way. 

It was probably the best sleep she had gotten in the past couple of days—if it weren’t for the buzzing and light beeps that suddenly came from the communicator on tracker-pad. Adora wondered why it would be ringing around this time of night, and she thought about getting up to see if it was an emergency—but a groan was all she mustered in order to get out of bed.

Luckily, she felt Catra slowly slip out of her grasp to get out of their bed. She grabbed the device herself after seeing that Adora was fast asleep, and tucked under the covers. 

Although, Adora wasn’t really asleep at all. 

 

“Sorry to call you two on such short notice,” Glimmer started saying, immediately after catra picked up the device. She looked surprisingly unkept.

“It’s just me for now—Adora is finally asleep… Also, you’re calling us in the middle of the night, I might add,” Catra grumbled as she took the device over to the edge of the bed with her and sat down.

“Yes, I know, Catra—but this is imperative for your guy’s safety! So please just listen to me this once!”, Glimmer normally would get frustrated when talking to Catra, but this time it seemed like she called for a reason.

Her head tilted to the side and she gave Glimmer a curious look, “Okay… You seem serious—what’s up, Sparkles?”

“What’s up, is that Bright Moon will be under siege by the Horde soon,” she breathed in heavily, “that’s why I didn’t just call you to come here now.”

Catra was a bit shocked for a moment after the abrupt news—especially after it’s been a long time since the Horde had done any large scale attacks.

“Why are they choosing to attack now, they haven’t been strong enough to take back their territory since I left for good—why would they think they could take down the rebellion’s capital?”, she asked.

The princess shrugged and gave her a worried look, “The Horde knows, Catra—they know, that we have been vulnerable too for the last few months…”, Glimmer stated carefully.

Catra swallowed, unsure of what to say or do.

Damn the First Ones, she knew what Glimmer meant.

“I don’t think they want to take over Bright Moon…”, Glimmer broke the small silence, before she looked away and bit her lip.

“They want Adora and I—don’t they…”, Catra sighed, reality slowly creeping up her unsuspecting back. 

Glimmer grimaced, “Yes. They are coming for you, and they are trapping us so we can’t help.”

“But the Horde doesn’t know where we live now, do they?”, Catra asked nervously.

Thankfully she shook her head, “No—but they think you’re still here, and we won’t tell them. But, they also don’t know if you are here either so they’ll be out looking for you soon.”

Catra took in a shaky breath, “So what, we have to run now?”

Glimmer breathed another heavy sigh and looked Catra in the eyes through the screen, “I hope you two get far, far away until the other princesses can come in with reinforcements.”

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose and then scrubbed the sleep away from her eyes, “What about Adora? The baby is coming soon, she needs to be in Bright Moon for when—“

“You’ll both be fine Catra, I know you will! You two just need to go now so that you’ll all be safe—do you have somewhere you can go?”, Glimmer interrupted her as calmly as she could muster. 

Catra’s mind was going at a mile-a-minute but she tried to think hard about someplace that might give them refuge. She knows of one place that can’t turn them down.

“Yes—Half Moon,” she whispered after a minute.

“Are you sure?”, Glimmer asked—she knew the journey there was difficult because the city was so well hidden, until Catra and Adora found it not too long ago.

Catra gave her a worried look, “They can’t say no to giving their own princess and her wife, who’s the actual She-Ra and about to have my first kid, refuge.”

“Wait woah—okay,” Glimmer looked taken back by the comment, but despite the shock of Catra being a princess and keeping it under wraps from most of them didn’t outweigh the limited time they had to talk.

Catra suddenly heard a door swing open in the background, and found Bow walking into whatever room Glimmer was calling from, “Glimmer we need to go soon! They’re approaching fast and I don’t know how much longer till they’ll intercept our communication lines. We don’t want them tracking Adora and Catra’s calls—or the other princesses for that matter.”

“Alright, just get over here before we go,” she waved him to come closer.

“Sorry Catra, I know this isn’t ideal for the two of you,” he looked tired—he’d probably been running around the castle preparing. He even had his full armor on.

“Things don’t always happen the way we want them to Bow, my life has been a perfect example of that so I’m prepared for this,” she tried to reassure him with a laugh, although it wasn’t really convincing to even herself. 

“I hope so—I’m so sorry, Catra,” he murmured and rubbed at his temple. 

“Stop saying that, it’s not your fault,” Catra chided him albeit gently. 

He sniffled, “Just know t-that, if anything happens, you can try to call, but only do it in a real emergency—we don’t w-want them to find you, because we don’t know what they’ll do to you t-two if they do.”

“Don’t cry, Bow—Glimmer says we will be fine, listen to her,” she was genuinely concerned for him at this point if he was this stressed—it seemed to be rubbing off on Glimmer too.

He nodded back, “Just please be careful, and know that we love you guys, both of you—plus baby!”

Catra couldn’t help but smile at the dork a little, “We… we love you guys too,” she replied.

Glimmer took Bow’s hand in her’s and gave it a soft squeeze, “Please keep Adora safe for us, Catra. And yourself as well—as much of a pain you can be to us sometimes... We don’t know what we’d do without you.”

Catra studied their faces one last time before saying, “I will.”

Then she ended the call and the screen flickered off.

She stared at the blank screen for a minute, before wiping her eyes. She didn’t mean for tears to fall—but they just seemed to slip out without her permission.

She sat on the edge of the bed just trying to manage to breathe normally again, which was becoming more difficult. 

Uneasily, she managed to turn around to look at Adora, who luckily had been asleep the entire call—oh.

She had been awake. 

Adora’s eyes where red and puffy, and she couldn’t bring herself to move from where she sat up on the bed or look away from Catra.

Catra didn’t know what else to say.

“We gotta go Adora,” she whispered as gently as she could—although her voice shook.

Adora opened her mouth to say something, but no noise seemed to come from her throat, so she took in a shuddering breath. 

They couldn’t fight off the Horde this time—not without losing the life they’d come so far to build for themselves.

“I know,” she rasped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you’re all still with me!  
> School is hard eeeee!  
> I cut up my chapters into smaller bits so guys can have something to read while I finish up the other chapters and my other five and such.  
> Lots more to come!  
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated!!!


	6. Hold On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Catra, along with Swift Wind, escape through the woods...

Swift Wind galloped around trees and over their winding roots through the Whispering Woods, with Adora and Catra clinging onto him tightly as he carried along as many of their necessary belongings that they could haphazardly fit into his saddle pack that he rarely wore.

The rain had started to pick up and the world around them was still dark, making tracing them through the forest very difficult for any Horde soldiers tasked with searching the area.

Swift Wind worked his way into a clearing as fast as he could carry everyone, and took off within a few seconds of opening up his wings. 

The rain pelted down onto their faces now that they were climbing into the air, and the hoods of their cloaks couldn’t quite shield them from the water, which was making it almost impossible to see what was in front of them. Swift Wind hadn’t said a word almost the entire trip, partly because Adora told him that this was a stealth mission—but mostly because he had to focus on where they were headed due to the lack of visibility. 

Catra shivered, and ultimately decided to bury her face into Adora’s back shoulder to hide from the rain. Adora turned slightly back to check on her other half, and felt guilty because she knew how much Catra despised both flying on Swifty and the cold rain. 

As bad as it was outside right now—Adora knew it was better to be safe than sorry, if they were caught by the Horde. They couldn’t let them get a hold of the key to Etheria.

She let Catra’s hold around her tighten as they flew higher into the stormy night. Although, Adora couldn’t admit it, she wasn’t sure if riding Swift Wind was the smartest decision for her to have made—at least flying may have been a panicked choice on her part. She wouldn’t let it get the best of her—but already, her lower back screamed and thighs ached as they held on. She knew that wherever they touch down, putting both feet on the ground would practically be torture. 

A sudden flash of lightning in the cloudy distance broke Adora from her anxious thoughts, and she hunched against Swifty and held on tighter as she anticipated the thunderous boom that followed.

The thunder sounded like the sky was going to break and fall upon the three or so of them, and it tore through their ears and it rang there. Catra had practically jumped off with a yelp at the sudden boom and grabbed Adora as tightly as she could. She kept her head up after and watched the sky for anymore incoming threats as they continued to fly through the downpour.

As soon as the first shot of lightning came and went though—another followed it close behind. 

Swift Wind dodged as best he could, but even he was getting nervous as the storm grew treacherous and he had his family depending on him to get them to somewhere safe. Turning back he looked at the two of them, “I don’t think it’s safe to fly anymore! I’m bringing us down—“, another crackle of thunder interrupted him as it broke through the sky, “now,” he had to yell over the wind and rain.

Catra held on for dear life as they descended and Adora hoped that there was some luck that they could land carefully on the ground without actually being able to see it. 

Breaking through mist, they saw the woods and Swift Wind beat his wings to try and slow down the best he possibly could. The descent was rocky at best, but they soon broke the tree line and hoped they landed somewhere remotely safe. Tucking in his wings, he managed to narrowly escape the grasp of a rogue tree branch and took the brunt of the impact of other branches as they not so gracefully skidded to the muddy forest floor. Swift Wind almost toppled over with the weight of both Adora and Catra on his back, but managed to catch himself with shaky legs. 

All three of them panted and exhaled a sigh of relief as they settled for a second and tried to take in their surroundings despite the thick fog. The silence of the woods around them was off putting, despite the fact that the rain was deafening. Thunder was still roaring, off somewhere in the distance. 

Catra didn’t like being in the air, but she knew it was probably safer than being on the ground—especially when she didn’t exactly know where they’d ended up. “We should get moving, we don’t want to hang around in one place too long right now,” she eyed the area carefully.

Swift Wind was flexing his left wing out and in to catch a glimpse of a fresh gash from one of the narrowly dodged trees. Adora gently ran a hand over his cheek to find another scrape from the landing. The alicorn took in another deep breath and sighed, “Agreed,” he nodded and began to shakily trot onwards on the mushy ground.

None of them spoke for much of the trip through the wet underbrush, and the three of them listened through the rain hitting the leaves of the tree tops and the rustle of the wind on high alert. Even though it might be hard for some Horde cadets on a scout mission to find both Adora and Catra, it would almost be equally difficult for all of them to hear or see the Horde coming their way if they were found. 

Adora didn’t want to think about what she might have to do if they happened to be found all the way out here—how’d she fight?

Would she have to run?

Would she have to leave Catra behind?

She didn’t think she’d be able to do that after all this time.

After a while of slowly making progress by walking in some sort of direction, Swift Wind stopped short of taking another step forward. His ears flicked and he stood still.

Adora was confused and gave him a concerned look as she leaned towards his face, “What’s wrong?”, she whispered.

Catra quickly shot a hand over Adora’s mouth and a muffled gasp slipped through her fingers.

Pulling Adora closer, her ears twitched too, “Did you hear that?”, she whispered even quieter than Adora had before.

“Obviously not—what’d you hear?”, Adora pried her hand away to ask.

Swift Wind answered, “A twig just snapped and it wasn’t me…”

The three of them looked around, while staying quiet and vigilant. 

Until, they all heard another snap and crunch coming from their right side of the woods a minute later.

Adora’s brows furrowed and she looked back at Catra as if to confirm that she heard it this time too. 

Catra nodded and quickly slid off of Swift Wind silently, and left Adora perched on his back. 

“Stay here, I’m going to check it out—don’t you dare even think about moving from this spot,” she glared at Adora as she whispered.

Adora frowned back, “What? I didn’t even blink!”, she whisper shouted back.

“It’d be just like you to try and go off without me, and there’s no way I’m dealing with you making a dumb decision right now!”, Catra pointed at her and held her gaze before reaching for the knife she had tucked in a sheath on her belt. She took her arms out of the slits in her short cloak for her arms, and pulled the hood back a bit to see better around her.

Catra looked back one last time, “If someone comes after you—then you can move.”

“Thank you for the permission, Commander Catra,” Adora scoffed quietly.

She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Your welcome, She-Ra.”

Carefully she turned around, and crept towards the gathering of bushes and trees where they heard the noise, and away from Swift Wind as silently as she typically does when she goes out hunting. 

Reaching the bushes she hunched into a fighting position just in case anyone on the other side where waiting for her to walk right into their trap. 

She stuck a hand out and pushed back the leaves to step through.

As soon as she stepped through the brush—a doe ran and jumped out from it and around Catra. 

It startled her and she had to stifle a yelp, but she refrained from reacting to hurt it realizing it was a harmless creature and not a soldier. 

With a big exhale and then an inhale, Catra looked back to Adora who seemed equally as surprised but also looked as if she was withholding a laugh at the sight.  
Following the doe, then came a small fawn with a few more crunches of leaves and twigs, and Catra watched as it caught up to its mom to eye Adora on top of Swift Wind.

Animals happened to have a natural affinity to liking Adora, as she was the She-Ra, who was supposed to be the tamer of beasts—although, Catra was sure Adora was just a gushy animal lover. 

The mother and baby deer stuck around for a second to come and regroup by the princess, to only then be spooked off by another rustle coming a distance from where Catra was originally supposed to be checking out.

“They are running from something,” Adora mouthed carefully.

Catra got back into a fighting stance to go find out what—but soon a shot of energy blasted through the trees and just past Catra’s shoulder. 

“OH COME ON!”, Catra cried out in shock, as she sprung out of the way to dodge.

A second later, another shot came through the trees and it was unmistakably from the gun of a Horde soldier and hit a tree behind Adora and Swift Wind. 

Catra whirled back to Adora and found her worried stare, “Run now! I’ll find you after I drive them off!” She then lept into action, as fast as she could gather herself.

“CATRA—WAIT!”, was all the reply she got back before she was out of earshot.

She pushed through the brush with her knife gleaming in her hand and ready for a good fight—to find a squad of probably ten scouts hidden in the woods, armed with Horde guns and ready to shoot.

“There’s one of them—I’m guessing the She-Ra should be with her,” one of the soldiers muttered through their helmet as they raised their barrels to point at her.

Luckily for them, they outnumbered Catra who was probably considered one of the most malicious fighters on Etheria—but lucky for her, she was good at dodging their shots and being fast allowed her to get in close to do some hand to hand combat. Which was what she felt she specialized in.

They easily came out and tried to surround her, almost instantly. She quickly glanced around at each one—none of them looked like a weak link.

Maybe Hordak smartened up after she left, and sent better scouts after her this time. 

She should be flattered, if it didn’t get in the way of her new family’s safety.

She decided in after a second to pounce at a random guy and see how far that got her.

Leaping, she dodged his quick and messy fire and got in his personal bubble before ducking his gun with another shot ready to go and sweeping his feet out from under him as he tried to step back.

He fell back, and let go of the gun after hitting the ground—Catra quickly scooped it up with her knife tucked back in her sheath and hit his helmet with it’s butt end to knock him out effciently before spinning on the next guy who came up behind her. Her hood fell back from her head, rain wetting her hair.

He tried to surprise her with a shot to the back but his mistake was that he came too close and as Catra turned she managed to shoot him back. She heard him coming around before she had finished of the other soldier. 

He flew back into another one of the scouts and they toppled into a tree. The guy behind him pushed him off and got back up, aiming at Catra.

She ducked quickly and it burn the ends of her short hair by accident—and she scoffed at how close of a call that was.

She stayed crouched and pounced again to pin him to the tree where she kicked him in the groin with her knee. He fell over and collapsed easily. 

Being Hordak’s second hand meant she knew all about armour, since she spent so long trying to figure out how to make it. And that meant she knew it’s faults. 

She whipped around to find another barrel pointing at her and she brought up her gun to shoot—while suddenly out of nowhere, another jumped and caught her by the waist.

They had teamed up on her, and fought back as dirty as she was.

She fell to the ground and the breath was knocked out of her, and the solider on top of her held her down as she squirmed for breath. She had lost the gun to her side and she tried to reach it but the woman had a strong grip on her wrists above her head. 

Catra kicked and tried to slash with her claws at the soldier while she heard the other one sneak up, but she continued to pin Catra to the wet underbrush of the forest. She growled and hissed like a feral animal to just get a second to break free—she couldn’t be bested by one Horde scout. 

The one man with a gun came forward and pointed it’s head to Catra under the woman holding her down. “Either you come willingly and take us to the She-Ra, or we’ll have to use force,” he stated carefully.

Catra spat upwards, “I’d never let you so much as touch a hair on my Adora’s head—let alone the fact that she’d beat your asses before you could even get your hands onto her.”

They both stared at her before speaking, and she scowled. 

“So be it,” the soldier sighed and pumped the gun away from Catra’s face and towards her abdomen. 

The shot sounded and Catra closed her eyes, before a force toppled the woman holding her down off her body and she heard the gun crash into a puddle. 

She opened her eyes all of a sudden to find the man holding a gun directly at her a second ago flung into another four soldiers in a pile on the ground. None of them looked like they’d be getting back up. The woman was stunned by the blast of the shot meant for her and laying beside her groaning.

Catra quickly grabbed the gun and stood in shock as she looked up to find gold plated boots dirtied with mud—and then She-Ra, standing tall and ethereal as ever. Although, breathing heavily, and her red cape was muddied and wet.

She turned around to face Catra and grimaced worriedly, “Catra! Are you alright—I was so scared I was too late,” she rushed to her wife and grabbed her shoulders, looking her over.

Catra stared at the golden light radiating off of her as it faded—lost for words she opened her mouth but wasn’t sure what she wanted to say…

She opted to let the first thing slip out of her mouth, “What are you doing here! I told you to run!”

Catra grabbed Adora’s hands and pushed them off to hold them at her sides, adrenaline making them shake.

Adora flustered, “Well I heard you struggling and I couldn’t just leave you! I had to do something!”

“You—you had to do something, which was run! You could’ve been hurt!”, Catra balled up their hands tightly.

“Well you were going to be shot! What was I supposed to do about that! Just let you be taken away by the Horde?”, Adora retorted with anxiety seeping into her voice.

Catra’s face contorted, “Yes! You can’t risk yourself like this—how, how are you even She-Ra right now?!”

“I don’t know—I just k-kinda acted on instinct! I was scared!”, Catra could see tears prickling at the corner of her wife’s eyes and threaten to fall.

“What about our kid! They matter more right now! You shouldn’t transform—we don’t know what it could do to them!”, she shook their fists in frustration.

Adora shut her watering eyes, “Well, m-maybe did you even think that maybe you mean just as much to me!”

“Then you would’ve let me deal with this… I need to t-trust that you’ll let go when it puts you or our kid in danger,” Catra said shakily.

Adora shook her head sternly, “You know that I will never let go—ever again, especially not now. You know I can’t do that. And you know you’d do the same thing for me.”

Catra looked up as Adora opened her eyes and a few tears rolled down her cheeks. They stayed silent as the rain continued to soak their hair and wash away the mud that clung to the both of them. Their hands still balled up in shaking fists together.

“You’re right,” Catra muttered, just barely audible through the downpour.

She was still angry at Adora for not listening to her and taking such a big risk—but she saved her like she always did and was right.

Adora nodded and wiped a tear streak away with her forearm. Swift Wind then crept through the trees and startled the two of them. 

He cleared his throat as he stared at the carnage around them, “Am I interupting something important?”

She-Ra almost snorted, and Catra scowled. 

“No—Swifty, you’re fine,” Adora assured him.

Behind the three of them regrouping, the man Catra had kicked in the groin had managed to recover and sat up quietly on the wet ground. He reached for one of the blaster guns and carefully pumped it to aim at the She-Ra, but then took his chances and aimed for the feline’s head. He was looking to go out with revenge, more than anything.

Swift Wind’s ears shot up, and quickly found the source of the sound from where he was standing. 

“ADORA, THINK FAST!”, he shouted suddenly.

Adora, confused, looked back and found the soldier on the ground ready to shoot—and threw up her braced arms, and drew Catra into her side and huddled into a parrying postition to deflect the on coming shot with a pained grunt—that instantly ricoshet off the gold plating and into the soldiers face. He was out cold and lying back in the mud now, and probably wouldn’t be getting back up any time soon.

Catra unfurled herself from Adora’s side, who shook from where she stood. 

“Adora?”, Catra breathed as she caught her bearings.

Adora didn’t respond, but her breathing went back to being ragged and labored, it was almost like she just ran a marathon. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she whimpered slightly as she bent over with her hands on her knees. She let herself slip, and dropped to the mud beneath them as her knees gave out.

Catra suddenly watched as She-Ra melted away, leaving a much smaller Adora to fall down in her place. She quickly stepped forward to catch her from behind and topple over with her. 

Panting, Adora slowly regathered herself in Catra’s grasp and leaned forward—back on her hands and knees. 

“Adora, what’s going on?”, Catra asked apprehensively as she sat up.

Adora took in another gulp of air and Swift Wind came around to check on her too. “This kinda happened when she transformed earlier too,” Swift Wind murmured to Catra. Adora opened her mouth to speak and couldn’t seem to find enough air to be able to talk with. She brought a hand to rest over her stomach and let it rest there, trying to calm herself.

She managed to finally relax and slowed her breathing, “I’m fine,” was all she got out.

Catra scoffed and put a hand to her back, “Well that’s a total lie—are you okay, really?”

Adora glared, “Yes... I’m really sure, I’m good—we’re both good, j-just worn out from using—my powers…”

“That’s what we were afraid of, and that’s why you shouldn’t be She-Ra right now—she’s benched again from now on. We really shouldn’t risk it with this magical crap,” Catra shot back.

Adora leaned back with some effort, “Come here, feel,” she grabbed Catra’s hand and put it flat to her own stomach. Catra quickly went quiet as she waited for a response to their touch, and a minute later a small kick pushed back against Adora’s skin through her dirty tunic. 

Catra let out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she needed to set free. She glanced at Adora’s blue eyes, and her wife’s face tried to reassure her.

“See? Just tired out. I’ll be okay—we are fine,” she gave her a small smile.

Catra let her hand slip away and she rubbed at her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose before she stood up.  
“Promise?”, she looked down at her with a hand held out her her to hold.

“I promise,” Adora assured her.

She helped Adora stand up, and Swift Wind knelt down so Catra could safely get her sit upon his back and rest for a while while they continued to move onward—she’d need energy later.

“Let’s get out of here,” the alicorn shivered in the rain just after looking back at the fallen scouts lying scattered around them in the mud. 

The two young women turned to look back at the carnage from their first fight in months. 

“Agreed!”

“Agreed.”

The three or so of them headed back to their main trail through the fog and brush of the forest—unsure of what might be ahead of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did this instead of study because I have anxiety issues about math! And I have a math final tomorrow!! Hooray!!!  
> Well, time well spent if you ask me.  
> More coming very soon—and a lot is going to happen next chapter!!!  
> Comments really make my day, and kudos are super duper appreciated!


	7. The Calm Before the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Catra find a safe place to rest.

Adora was perched on top of Swift Wind as they moved farther into the whispering woods through the pouring rain. 

Droplets of water hit and bounced off of her cloak with small pitters and patters, and that was mostly all she could hear other than the loud rustle of wind through the tree leaves and the sound of animals around them. It took her mind off the fact that her back ached from riding too long, and her feet still throbbed from running around as She-Ra a minute or two longer than she should’ve. 

Despite the toll of being She-Ra for a short period of time, she couldn’t help but think about transforming again and turning back around and going to help her friends back in Bright Moon.

She felt like a coward—running away from the fight she’s responsible for.

She couldn’t even call her best friends to ask if they were still safe, without the risk of being traced.

Catra broke her from her silent thoughts, as she was looking around from under her own hood, “We need to find some shelter for us to wait out this storm—and soon, I don’t want you to get stuck out in this for any longer than we already have.” Catra kept a hand on Swift Wind’s, side trying to guide him around while she walked beside him, carrying Adora.

“Catra—I’m fine, let’s just focus on getting out of the rain, it’s chilly out,” Adora fussed back. 

“We just ran faster than we have in months, then we fly away on Swifty here, through a lightning storm only to crash into the whispering woods—to then fight off a highly trained Horde squadron. Adora, you are nine months pregnant, you are certainly NOT fine,” Catra glared back at her, “No matter how strong I know you are…” 

Adora got the note that she was obviously still tense from the quarrel they had run themselves into earlier. But, she still returned the glare as Swift Wind shifted uncomfortably under the tension. Although she knew Catra was right. She hurt, and she was incredibly out of breath and exhausted from earlier. 

Catra turned back around, surveying the area they were in. “We need to get you somewhere where you can rest,” she sighed out, forcing herself to relax her shoulders. 

“I’d think we could all use some rest,” Swift Wind drawled, before shaking some of the water out his mane. He sounded just as exhausted as he looked, after carrying the two of them across the kingdom—he still had a gash on his wing that was bothering him.

“The sooner we find a safe, dry place, the sooner we are to a fire—and probably sleep,” Catra muttered, almost dreamily. 

“I feel like it won’t be that easy considering how today has gone for us, Catra,” Adora huffed as she looked around from her higher vantage point.

“Yah, no duh,” she growled.

They stayed quiet for a bit longer, as the three of them traversed through the foggy woods with fatigue. Swift Wind slowly started to gaze off into the distance without a clear destination, and his legs started to become more wobbly than before. Catra noticed and her anxiety rose up in her chest to her throat, making her breathing heavier, and even her footsteps became laden from the small cuts to her legs from running through thickets in the brush earlier today. Adora felt as though she might not be able to keep her eyes open for much longer, and her back screamed with every step Swift Wind took forward—and she held back winces as he hopped over roots.

Before she could close her eyes again, she spotted a familiar, overgrown stone path, that was covered in vines. Looking closer, she knew exactly where they had ended up—or maybe where the forest had wanted them to be. A light glow came from the corner of the landscape.

“Catra,” Adora straightened up and shook herself awake, but Catra was too distracted by the sound of heavy rain and her own tired body. “Catra!”, Adora tried again, louder, patting Swift Wind on the neck.

“Huh?” Catra turned around suddenly as if surprised, and vaguely still remembered the fact that they were looking for a place to stay the night. “What Adora,” Catra sighed heavily. 

“I know this area,” Adora gestured with her finger around them and she then pointed to the eerie glow emanating through the trees, “and I know that glow anywhere…”

“Oh…”, Catra blinked fatigue from her eyes as if taking in the world all over again.

“It’s the Crystal—“, Adora was about to say.

“THANK THE FIRST ONES IT’S THE CRYSTAL CASTLE!”, Swift Wind perked up instantly at the sight and interrupted Adora, already directing the two of them towards the beacon.

The three of them trudged through the rain and over the slippery stone that made way to the entrance of the overgrown ruins around the castle, and Adora sighed as she and Swift Wind uttered the word to open the door down into the main passages to Light Hope’s chamber. As soon as the door opened, Catra and Swift Wind along with Adora, slid inside to hide from the rain. 

All three of them visibly relaxed as the door shut and the lights glowed at the She-Ra’s presence, and Catra came over to help Adora off Swift Wind’s back—although it was mostly futile because Adora had already insisted she could slide off onto the ground by herself, and she winced as soon as her feet hit the ground. 

“You good there, princess?”, Catra asked slightly worried as Adora took a moment to recover.

“Yeah—just give me a sec’ and I’ll be fine…”, she replied as she glanced at Catra while leaning heavily on Swift Wind’s side. 

“You know—I was trying to kneel down for you—but noooo…”, Swift Wind turned to look at her and rolled his eyes.

Adora simply didn’t have the energy to argue so she stuck out her tongue.

Swift Wind made a mockery of a gasp and whipped his head back to look at Catra, “Hey! Catra, did you see what she did—how rude,” he snorted. 

“No, I’m too busy waiting to get us moving out of this creepy hallway,” she deadpanned. 

“C’mon it’s not that bad,” Adora slowly took a few baby-steps forward to grab Catra’s arm. Thinking after a second as they started to carefully move into the citadel, she continued, “well—I guess that’s true only because Swift Wind and I have trained in here so much…”

“It’s fairly creepy,” Catra answered as they continued to walk into the main room where Light Hope typically resided—although she wasn’t there to greet them today.

“Where’s the also pretty creepy light lady?”, Catra asked, looking around the wide room. 

“She’s long gone,” Adora answered as she reminisced on the hours upon hours she spent in here with Swifty.

“Well I guess it’s good this once she’s not here to greet us, because I’m not here to talk to a whack holo-lady anyways. We should sit down and I’ll try to remember how to conjure a fire—because I’m cold, and wet, and so are you guys,” she sighed as they settled down on the tile floor and Catra helped Adora down, but she still slightly hissed as she sat. 

“Not getting any easier is it?”, Catra slightly grimaced.

“No, it’s not. I don’t think any amount of training can prepare someone for this,” she mumbled, and Catra took a moment to look her over to make sure she was alright. Then she dropped down beside her wife and began to hold out her hands in an attempt to will a fire to come into existence.

Adora watched in grim fascination while she took off her cloak, as Catra focused on the palms of her hands—as if something was there when there really wasn’t anything at all. Swift Wind came kneel down behind the two of them, and Adora let herself fall back against him to give herself some relief. Catra twitched and she made a small grumbling sound before closing her hands and twisting them, to then open them back up quickly, to find a small flame blossoming in her palms.

“Boom! There it is…”, Catra brought the small flame close to admire it and pulled it away when it got too hot. She looked back at Adora and gave her a small tired smile.

“Nice,” Adora smiled back, albeit also just as tiredly.

“You can thank the Magicat fam for that one,” she said as she set it slowly to the ground to let it grow for a second before taking her warm hands away gently, nervous it might go out and she’d have to start all over again. Although, the little self-contained fire seemed to stay glowing and radiating heat—even without a source. 

Catra moved away and went to take off Swift Wind’s saddle pack with their things—setting it down. His short hair bristled with the newfound warmth, while he settled his head down against their packs, and surrounded Adora and Catra with his wing. Catra settled herself back against the softly breathing alicorn herself, after shedding her own cloak, and looked into the small fire she’d made. Adora shifted beside her to grab a thin blanket from one of the packs and scooted closer, so Catra met her halfway—wrapping around her back for her to lean into her for the night. Adora settled against her, then put her head in the crook of Catra’s shoulder and neck, and curled up into Catra’s side, resting on her chest. The two of them breathed a collective, heavy sigh of relief, when they both found that they were finally safe, warm, and slightly comfortable. 

Catra found that the large room seemed to glow an eerie blue and purple, despite the hour of the day, and although it wasn’t quite dark—she found that her eyelids were too heavy to want to keep open any longer. Adora had already passed out on her shoulder, eyes shut tight, although Catra couldn’t help but hyperfocus on her. 

Maybe Catra was just shaken by the day’s chase, and needs to sleep it off, or her new motherly instincts were just making her anxious. 

She couldn’t believe that that was becoming a possibility now—being a new mom, and adding more stress.

Adora’s Breathing seemed a bit off as she felt her take in the chilly air against her chest, and she gently clutched Catra’s shirt with a slightly trembling hand.

Catra put her hand over Adora’s clutching her shirt and gently rubbed another hand over Adora’s back, thinking she must be sore. The blonde groaned a bit in her throat and Catra stopped carefully.

She popped open a yellow eye to look down at her, and whispered into her ear, “Hey, are you going to be okay?”

Adora drew in another unsteady breath and nodded without pulling her face out of the crook of Catra’s neck or saying a word.

“You sure you don’t need me to do anything?”, she tried.  
Adora nodded again.

“Okay then,” Catra yawned before shutting her eye again. She pulled up the thin blanket Adora pulled out for them and bought it to their chins for extra warmth.

“Goodnight, Princess,” Catra murmured before she succumbed to sleep while holding onto Adora.

 

Adora felt like sleep was purposefully trying to elude her, and it was unfair. 

She was exhausted—but her body ached, and she couldn’t figure out how to slip into unconsciousness like Catra already had. 

She knew something was off, although she didn’t feel like she could deal with anything else at the moment. 

So—she snuggled into the warmth and tried to focus on their synchronized, rhythmic breathing. 

 

It was dark wherever she was, she suddenly realized—and she was alone.

“Catra?”, she called out, and it slightly echoed.

She looked around, but it was like she was sitting in a black abyss.

“Catra!”, she called again, but more desperate this time.

Slowly she got up, onto her feet. 

Her body still ached—even if she wasn’t quite in reality.

Although, now—she was no longer pregnant.

She looked down at herself in grim fascination, and self-consciously wrapped her arms around her torso as if she was missing something that was supposed to be there...

Which she was.

She was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a baby crying in the distance.

She whirled around in alarm, but couldn’t find the source as it got louder and louder. 

The cry took an awful turn into a tantrum of screaming, and Adora wanted to find the baby it was coming from but she needed to stop and cover her ears with her palms. 

She squeezed her eyes shut to the painful sounds and tried to calm herself down. 

This just had to be another night-terror, just like the others that she and Catra are always, and will always, be plagued with. 

This wasn’t real.

She opened her eyes—and found Shadow Weaver standing right in front of her.

She didn’t mean to be so startled—but Adora jumped back out of fear and tripped over her own feet, to land hard on the ground in front of her. She had screamed out of shock, and felt like she couldn’t breathe afterwards.

She tried to breathe again, but it didn’t come easy.

“You’re not real,” she rasped, “you’re not real,” she closed her eyes again, “you’re dead…”

Shadow Weaver took a step forward, while carefully holding something in her arms.

“Oh, Adora—I am very much real, and more alive than ever!”, Shadow Weaver couldn’t show that she was grinning, but with her voice behind the mask you could know. 

Adora shuddered at the words, and the sorceress visibly noticed. She knelt down to Adora, and tilted up her screwed up tight face to greet her own.

Adora opened her eyes again, to not only glance at the face of her mother-figure, but to find a small bundle cradled in her arm protectively.

“Shouldn’t you know that Adora?”, she sneered.

Adora looked down at the squirming bundle, “C-catra and I did what we needed t-to, in order to p-protect all of us,” she choked out.

“Oh—but my sweet baby girl,” she caressed her face with morbid care, “I know that your pet tells you, and you and tell yourself, that one horrible lie…” 

Adora froze.

“I know it was really you who finished me off—and sealed the fate of many others who gave up their lives in this war, the day you destroyed that great, big, magical sword of yours—don’t you remember, Adora?”, Shadow Weaver’s hand continued to stroke down to her shoulder and then she gripped it.

Adora couldn’t breathe anymore, the air was too thick.

She did remember—and all she did was make it worse by trying to deny the fact that maybe she’d been selfish to think she could break herself free from her destiny.

“Why’d you do it Adora?”, she studied the girl’s face. “After all, I am all you have as a mother—why’d you let me go the same way you failed your sweet Angella?“

Adora snapped—she couldn’t do this any longer.

She leapt at Shadow Weavers middle, grasping for the baby.

She snagged it from her arms as the dark sorceress screeched for it back, and she wrapped her arms protectively around it as she took off running.

Although she didn’t get very far—as Shadow Weaver’s dark shadowy appendages raced across the ground to find her ankles and wrap themselves around her.

Adora tripped and slammed her back to the ground in order to fall so she didn’t crush the baby in her arms—as Shadow Weaver groped her legs to draw her in. 

She had knocked the breath out of her and as much as Adora wanted to figure out how to breathe again, she needed to focus on getting herself and the baby away from this witch.

She kicked and flailed out as she drew closer and managed to worm slightly loose of her dark clutches. Her foot untangled itself and she swung her free leg out at Shadow Weaver’s feet to try and knock her down as she lashed out at Adora. 

They collided and Shadow Weaver tripped back and Adora wasted no time getting to her feet, and while holding the baby in one hand protectively, she wrestled over her old guardian and firmly grasped the mask covering her face in hopes of separating the black garnet shard from the sorceress.

She pried it off, and flung it across the dark abyss as far as her arm would allow her to do so. Shadow Weaver reeled and screamed under Adora’s pin and the princess stood up—to kick her in the ribs with her foot before taking off.

She sprinted as fast as she possibly could without looking back, while holding onto the bundle tightly.

After a few minutes of huffing and puffing to try and catch her breath while jogging away, exhaustion settled over her like it had outside of her dream state. She slowed to a sluggish pace and she waded through the darkness. 

It seemed to be engulfing her feet now—as if she was sinking. 

It was going to swallow her up whole. 

Eventually she stopped, she couldn’t fight the lead like weight in her legs any longer, as black pooled at her legs. 

Shaking, she sighed—and hugged the child as it began to cry in her grasp. She rocked it back and forth as she tried to calm herself from the nightmare and the baby. 

Moving back, she cradled the small being and pulled the swaddle down to get a better look at the child’s face. 

She let out a large, audible gasp, as she revealed the baby to be herself—or what she guessed was herself as a baby.

The child was unmistakably herself—no one else had those pale blue eyes, or a wisp of blonde that always fell in her face. 

She caressed her own cheek with a gentle finger. 

“I’m so sorry…”, she whispered to little Adora, trying to ignore the cold darkness creeping up her torso. 

Baby Adora’s tears slowed and her cries softened to a whimper.

“I’m so very sorry,” Adora repeated and she hugged herself tight as the darkness washed over them both like a rising flood, washing away her tears.

All she could hear in the abyss was the low voice of the woman she once looked up to as a little kid… “You’ll always be mine Adora, and I will always be around—to take back the power was rightfully mine—no, all of Etheria’s, that you stole… You ungrateful child.”

The darkness swaddled her in a cold embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I split the next chapter into 2! So enjoy this smaller one!  
> The next one will be fun ;)  
> Kudos and comments are really appreciated!


	8. To Fetch a Pail of Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unlikely arrival and Swift Wind comes in clutch.

Adora gasped for air as a sudden and sharp pain exploded across her lower stomach, the shock waking her from her nightmare all at once. It tightened like a fist pressing into itself until it’s knuckles went white.

She sat up from Catra and curled in on herself—hissing as the pain seceded as soon as it came. She was left sitting on the cool stone floor, trying to breathe and take in her surroundings.

The castle’s main room was glowing an eerie but almost comforting purpley-blue, the small fire that Catra had made was still glowing with warmth, Catra had just been holding onto her a second ago, and Swift Wind was behind her.

Although, he looked quite disturbed by Adora’s abrupt awakening. He bristled and lifted his wing back to give her space—as Catra groaned and rubbed at her eyes trying to wake up.

“Hey, you look spooked—everything alright?”, Swifty asked as he craned his neck to check on her.

Adora took in another shuddering breath for what felt like the thousandth time today. She shook her head and closed her eyes, trying to calm down.

Catra, now fully awake, came around to push the loose hair from her face and check her out. She put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Adora simply gripped her knees where she sat hunched over and tried to process everything that just happened.

“Okay, you have me really worried now—you look like you’ve just seen a ghost or something. Be honest,” Catra pressed as her ears pinned to her head when she didn’t answer Swift Wind.

Adora leaned into Catra in front of her, and rested her forehead on her shoulder. Apprehensively, she moved a hand over her belly, worried the pain would happen again.

“A nightmare,” Adora exhaled to answer her question—only partially telling the truth.

She could only handle one thing at a time right now, and the dream still lingered in her mind like a memory.

Catra rubbed her back and held her head against her shoulder to run her fingers through her disgruntled ponytail, “Another nightmare? Like the usual ones we have?”

Adora shook her head in the crook of her neck,  
“No, this wasn’t ordinary—this one was more real than any I’ve had in a long time.”

Catra frowned, “Look—I’m sorry, it’s probably all the stress from today,” she paused to yawn still rubbing Adora’s back, “I know this stupid mess must be really difficult for you… But we’ll get through it, and soon we’ll get back on track to Half-Moon and you can see my family again. You’ll be safe—and if we need to, we’ll have a safe place to meet our kid.”

Adora sighed, and shivered at the prospect of not being home to have the baby.

She wanted to go home now—she was shaken up.

It was as if the ghost of Shadow Weaver had come and sucked all the confidence she had out of her body.

Why couldn’t anything just be easy for the two of them?

She knew the legend of She-Ra were grand stories of adventure—but did it have to be their whole lives?

Was Adora the first to successfully try to settle down?

She had always wondered if that’s why Mara went mad, and why Razz was always waiting for her to return.

Although, now she was gone—and Adora was left to continue the story for her.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Adora muttered into her shoulder. “I want to be home, even with how nice Half Moon is…”, she sat back up and rubbed at her own eyes, finding them puffy and wet.

Catra squeezed her shoulder, “I know Adora—we just don’t know when their going to call us and tell us it’s safe to go home… I wouldn’t keep my hopes up.”

Adora nodded, worrying her lip.

“That probably didn’t help much, did it…”, Catra drawled. She turned to grab the water canteen from their pack of things, and opened it up to offer it to Adora.

“No…”, Adora exhaled, “But the thought was there…”, she gave her a small smile. She took the water, and took a big sip of the cool liquid, soothing her now noticeably dry throat.

Catra smirked back, with a crinkle to her eye and a tip of a fang peeking out, “Do you want to talk about the dream you had? Or do you want to put a peg in this conversation?”

The blonde hummed to herself and she sat back against Swift Wind while Catra put the canteen back in the pack.

“No, I’ll think about it, and deal with it later…”, Adora tried to shrug away the horrible feeling the nightmare had left her with. “I don’t think I can deal with much more right now—I admit that I still feel exhausted.”

Catra laughed, “Alright, your choice not mine, but just know that I’m all ears—I guess,” she twitched her ears at her attempt to lighten the mood for the blonde—who even in the low lighting in the cavernous room, she could see she was forming bags under her glazed, light-blue eyes.

Adora laughed slightly and then snorted, making Catra relax a little and let the corner of her mouth turn upwards a bit more. Adora smiled slightly and wiped at her eyes with the sleeve of her loose tunic, “Catra—why are you like this… Bow used to always think you’d make good Magicat puns—“, she stopped mid-thought.

Adora’s words faltered as her face contorted… A small ache quickly grew into the sharp pain she had felt from earlier throughout her abdomen, and she gasped at its sudden reappearance. Adora curled back in on herself and hugged her stomach as if it would protect her from whatever was happening. She hissed in air through her gritted teeth as the pain persisted to throb.

Catra grimaced and focused in on Adora in an instant, “Woah, woah, woah—what’s wrong?”

Adora winced as she curled in on herself again, “This happened earlier too, I don’t understand…”

“How long ago?”, Catra probed, with a slight edge to her voice that she didn’t mean to use.

“Right when I woke the two of you up,” Adora felt the pain slowly die down again, and she rubbed circles over her bump as if it might ease the strain. She was rocking back and forth while trying to catch her shuddering breath, practically shaking.

Catra wracked her brain and anxiety took over, she knew that this couldn’t be normal... “Adora, I think this is kinda important—”, she began, and put a reassuring hand on her arm to steady her.

Without warning, Adora’s eyes went wide with shock as a gush of warm liquid spilled from between her legs and wet her pants. She paused and didn’t move from where she sat. Her breath hitched almost immediately.

Both stared with fear as Catra broke the silence, “Adora, is that…”

“My water just broke,” Adora murmured—in disbelief.

Catra tightened her grip on the blonde and had to force down a hallow laugh, “Oh, okay—well… We are really doing this now, huh?”

Adora’s breathing picked up and faltered as the gravity of the situation seemingly began to take its toll, “My water just broke, Catra,” she repeated, her voice rising and now with a noticeable tremor.

“I know—I know,” Catra calmed her, although she said it more for herself than Adora.

Very quickly, Adora had tears threatening to fall at the corners of her eyes, “What are we gonna do? They weren’t supposed to come yet… The due date was next week!”

Catra had to think—do something, now was not the time to curl up and scream at how dumb the way the world worked was.

She was good at improvising—she could do this, but she had to stay calm and collected.

“I don’t know but I’m pretty sure we’ve gotta think of something soon—or else we’ve got a big mess on our hands,” she spoke up. She tried to sound a bit more collected than she really was in hopes that Adora would calm down.

Although, she still looked just as shaken as before.

Adora quivered, “We already do! I don’t know how to do this—and neither do you!”, she gripped her stomach with shaking hands.

Catra furrowed her brows and drew her lips into a hard line, taking in a deep inhale while she thought out loud, “Well it seems like you’ve been having contractions… But they aren’t super close together, so that leaves us some time to figure it out—alright?”

Adora sniffled, and she grimaced while she worked to keep herself together, “Not enough time to wait out a call saying we can go back to Bright Moon—and certainly not enough time to find Half Moon!”

Catra almost gave a hollow laugh for a second time, “Well where else are we going to go? We could stay right here—“

“No!”, Adora suddenly interrupted.

Catra looked confused, “What’s wrong with staying in here? It’s not like we have a lot of choices right now!”

Adora worried with her lip as she furrowed her brow, “I can’t do this here, I just—I don’t want to do this here,” she admitted.

Catra’s tail twitched and her ears pressed down to her head, “Adora…”

“Catra—please! We had a plan,” Adora pleaded while she began to spiral, “And now it’s all fallen apart, like it always does—nothing can just go according to plan! I just don’t want to do this wrong… I want to be able to do this one thing right!”, Adora couldn’t let go of the regretful memories of she and Catra as young adults here years ago.

Catra left her here to die when she was still angry at her—she couldn’t shake the memory of tears in her eyes when she turned away to leave her struggling to hang off a cliff. Not even including the numerous times she had to fight faux Catras for training exercises that left her physically and emotionally drained for days.

She didn’t want her memory of their child being born to be attached to the ruins.

“It doesn’t feel right to do this in here!”, Adora’s voice shook.

Catra couldn’t help it, but she exploded, “We can’t go home right now, Adora!”

There was a pregnant pause.

Catra hissed at the tone of her own voice, and Adora simply looked up at her with her big, blue eyes as she searched in the moment for how to react.

Catra sighed and gave her a sympathetic look, “Adora… I’m sorry that things don’t always go according to your plans! But I know better than anyone on this entire dying planet, that when you’ve hit rock bottom things can only get better from there on out—and I know that you have been there too!”

She stood up, and looked around the room, and then settled on their packs of supplies. “So what we are going to do now, is use what we’ve got to improvise like we always do—and you need to have faith that Swifty over here and I are going to help you. Everything will be fine,” she tried her best to sound determined.

Adora squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her palms, trying to focus on the situation at hand. Normally she wouldn’t have made such a fuss about a practical solution, but now she felt unprepared for what was coming.

She needed to get herself together, she knew better than to cry over it.

They were really doing this.

And she really didn’t have a choice.

“Okay,” she exhaled.

Adora knew better than to argue at this point.

Catra nodded, silently relieved that the panic had slightly died down for now.

She still had no idea how to deliver a baby.

She rummaged through the saddle pack for something to hold water. Catra knew they’d need some, and while she searched she’d pull out other various supplies. Settling on a small pot they carried to boil water, she grabbed it by the handle and dropped it in front of Swift Wind.

Catra grabbed the blanket that was thrown on the ground, “Go fetch some water from the nearby stream as fast as you can.”

Swift Wind didn’t like the commanding voice she’d used and would normally tease her about it—but he knew that asking for a simple ‘please’ in the moment would be detrimental.

“Gotcha,” he mumbled.

Catra leaned down and wrapped Adora up in their blanket while Swift Wind made an effort to get up. His legs were shaky still, but he’d manage. He grabbed the pot with his teeth on the handle as he found his way out.

The hallways glowed in his presence and he used a tap of his horn to open the door to the outside world.

The sudden chill of the rainy day made him shiver as he acclimated to his new surroundings.

Outside, the clouds still were an angry dark grey color, and the sky was dark. The rain fell a little lighter than before, but it was just as annoying to trudge through.  
Trotting over the stone of the castle’s front entrance made his hooves make a loud, splashing sound.

Hopefully nobody had followed them, because he wasn’t the most stealthful creature right now.

He worked his way over to the small stream that ran just a little off to the left of the ruins. There, he lowered the pot down into the clear, running water. It splashed his snout as he picked it back up and he shivered again at how chilly it was.

As he turned around, Swift Wind’s ears twitched. They picked up a rustle from the direction he was heading in.  
He scanned the foliage around the area for any sign of a Horde soldier that had managed to find their way to the ruins.

When the alicorn was sure he’d surveyed enough of the premise he gave a final glance behind him to the stream.

Upon turning his head, he found himself face to face with an old woman—Madame Razz.

Swift Wind screeched in surprise, dropping the pot of water to the forest floor from his mouth.

He jerked away, “MADAME RAZZ? WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE?!”

“You know, Swift Wind, I could really ask you the same thing!”, she stared at him through her thick spectacles that made you question if she had any vision left at all.

He looked to the pot on the ground and quickly picked it back up to refill its contents.

Razz observed as he trotted back to the stream, “But if you must know dearie, I was simply picking berries and enjoying the rainy weather!”

Swift Wind set the pot back into the flowing water and watched as it refilled. Gasping it with his teeth, he picked up the handle.

“Lofley—welf I coulf really usf your helf…”, he spoke to Razz through his teeth as he turned back around.

With small hands, the old woman grasped the handle from his mouth and he handed it over without any protest.

“What was that, dearie?”, she asked.

Swift Wind sighed, “That sounds LOVELY. I could REALLY use your HELP!”, he made sure emphasize.

“What’s the problem at hand?”, she gave him a curious look.

Swift Wind started walking back, and hoped Razz would follow.

The old woman carried the pot along with her and did indeed follow him.

Walking back to the main ruins, Swift Wind worried he had already taken too long. It was like a thread was tight around his throat all of a sudden and it was tugging him back to Adora, and he was slightly out of breath. He guessed it must be their bond.

“It’s Adora, and the baby is coming early…”, he replied as he craned his neck back towards Razz.

She adjusted her grip on the pot, “Oh I see! Well that is certainly exciting—but this is not the greatest of places to have a baby!”

He shook his head, “No—we already know that.”

She gave him another curious glare, “Then why here?”

Swift Wind exhaled with a slightly annoyed edge, “We can’t make it anywhere else right now—we can explain later when we actually have time… but we could really, really, really use your help!”

Razz now gave him a reassuring smile, “Of course… once you take me to your Adora, let us go back to my home—it will be much more comfortable for her there!”

“If we can convince Catra to move, I’m sure we’d greatly appreciate it!”, he quickly agreed.

They reached the door and Swift Wind opened it up, hurrying down the halls with Razz scurrying behind him.

When he reached the main room, he could hear Adora struggling. Catra was trying to soothe her while rocking her back and forth wrapped in her arms on the floor, but Adora was still breathing deep ragged breaths with her face tucked into Catra’s chest, while she kept both hands protectively wrapped around her abdomen through another wave of pain.

Catra looked up at Swift Wind as he approached carefully.

“You better have brought that water if you took that long—did you get lost or something?”, she grumbled at him.

Swift Wind couldn’t help but roll his eyes, “I did not get lost!”, he drawled. “But I did bring back something better—I found us some help!”

Madame Razz set down the pot, and Catra held her breath until she saw just who Swift Wind had managed to find out in the woods. She visibly relaxed at the sight of the old woman. Adora peeked at what was going on through the corner of her eyes, but made no attempt to move.

Madame Razz knelt down to meet the two of them on the floor with a gentle smile and a reassuring touch to Adora’s warm cheek, “Hello dearies—I'm going to need you to come with me, and we’ll handle this together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m milking the chapters I have written!  
> SORRY!  
> Next chapter should be a fun one!  
> It will all culminate soon and you can have your fluff!  
> Kudos and comments are are always appreciated!!!


	9. Little One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Madame Razz helps Adora and Catra, and they meet someone new.

Catra hurried into the small hut, and Razz led her to the warm cot in the corner of the room. She cradled Adora’s head and carefully placed her down on the mattress as she let out a large groan, and gripped Catra’s forearm until her knuckles were white.

“Adora listen to me, just hang in there a little bit longer—Razz is going to help you,” Catra swept the wet hair off of Adora’s sticky with sweat forehead. 

“D-don’t leave,” she hissed back.

Catra looked back at Razz humming a strange melody and saw that she was grabbing water and rags, so she started to quickly undress Adora without warning. 

“Not planning on it anytime soon, princess,” she yanked off her pants, and rolled up her shirt. 

Then she grabbed one of the blankets, draping it over Adora so she had something to keep over herself for comfort.

Adora gripped the blanket and clenched her jaw as a wave of discomfort washed over her that slowly got more intense again. Catra pulled over a stool near the bed and sat down close by Adora’s head. The blonde’s eyes were squeezed shut as she tried to breathe calmly, but it was starting to become more difficult to keep her nerves down with the rising pressure. 

Razz handed Catra a wet rag for Adora’s forehead and she placed it there gingerly, then she grabbed her clenched fist in her own hand. Slowly Adora unfurled it and gripped Catra’s hand as it trembled, intertwining fingers. 

“C-catra, I can’t breathe,” Adora wheezed.

Catra leaned in close and carded her fingers through what was left of Adora’s ponytail with her other hand, it made the blonde open her eyes, “That’s because you’re an anxious wreck—and I don’t blame you.” Catra looked Adora in the eyes, she could tell that tears were slowly prickling at the corner of them, “You’ve always been brave, Adora—you just have to do it again, I know you can.”

Adora nodded and shut her eyes, biting her lip—until she did it so hard it began to draw blood. She sniffled as she tried to hold back tears and gripped Catra’s hand harder. 

“Don’t try to hold it in dearie, if you need to cry—I assure you that it is quite lonesome out in this part of the woods,” Madame Razz advised with a comforting smile as she came to sit on the end of the cot by Adora’s feet.

Catra watched as Adora sucked in air with a shuddering breath, and only a whimper escaped her mouth with a worsening contraction. She squeezed her hand harder in return and turned to Razz.

“How much longer does she have to go through with this?”, Catra asked apprehensively.

The old woman rubbed her chin, “I’m not sure, but labor can go on for many hours—or go on for very little… but it seems that your Adora is having contractions closer together now, so it might not be long now!”, she smiled.

“Is there anything we can do now? To help”, Catra’s ears flattened to her head as she thought anxiously about what they might have to face next in the near future.

The old woman stood up again to move to the other corner of the room, “I can go make her some tea to take the edge off and help with the pain—but what you can do is stay by your Adora’s side to support her. That’s what is best for the both of you.”

Catra scowled—this would’ve been much easier on Adora if they were in Bright Moon, and not out in the middle of the Whispering Woods. Here, they had nothing but herbal tea to give her, and so Catra watched with displeasure and Adora couldn’t manage to hold back a small cry as a new wave of pain washed over her. 

“I-I’m sorry!”, she whimpered, suddenly.

Catra looked at her, and Adora’s eyes opened again, and they wouldn’t stop erratically shifting to take in everything—she was terrified.

“Don’t be sorry, you have absolutely nothing to be sorry for,” Catra leant back in and hugged her to her close to her chest, “Just please focus on breathing.”

Adora gave her a grunt of annoyance in reply, “I’m trying my best…”, she rasped.

Catra smirked down at her, “I know you are.”

The contraction soon after slowly died down, and gave Adora a moment to rest without her feeling as much pressure. The small break allowed the weight of exhaustion to press down on her body, making her eyelids and limbs feel like lead. 

All she wanted to do was to curl up into Catra and sleep until everything was over—put this whole thing off, and wait until they could go home without the threat of the Horde. 

That seemingly wasn’t an option though. 

With a small squeeze to the hand, Catra caught her attention and broke her from her slightly more clear than earlier thoughts. She looked to her with glazed over eyes. 

“Razz made you tea to drink—it’ll make you feel better,” she pointed out.

Razz smiled and stood by the bed with the beverage, as Catra helped Adora sit up on the small stack of pillows on the cot. Catra reached out to grab a mug of hot liquid from Razz, “Here you go, dearie.”

She held it out to Adora who took it gladly in her own hands, despite how shaky they were. 

The warm tea made no protest to being chugged down in an instant and Adora could almost feel herself slowly relax—although, it only seemed to help slightly. 

“Thank you,” Adora muttered as she fumbled to hand over the empty mug to Razz.

The old woman went to set the mug down, and came back to the cot, “So, I see that the little one is eager to come early hmmm?”

Adora frowned, “We weren’t expecting them for another week… So we thought we could at least make it to Half Moon or hide till we could return to Bright Moon,” she said meekly.

“We can’t go to Bright Moon like we had planned, because the princess warned us of a Horde siege. They were looking for us… And they even managed to find us after we ran. And now, we are here with you,” Catra explained.

Razz took off her glasses and rubbed the fabric of her dress over the lenses as she gave them both a sympathetic look, “I’m sorry, dearies. You both are welcome to stay here with me—for as long as you need. My Mara would be proud to see you two persevering to do the things she could not in her time.”

Adora reached for Catra’s wrist and managed to do so with a small smile, while she wrapped her fingers around her pulse. Catra did the same. 

“Thank you—it’s nice to hear that from you,” Catra blushed.

She doesn’t thank most people, but Razz had a soft place in her heart. 

Madame Razz looked Catra in the eyes and held her gaze with a gentle touch to bring up her chin, causing Catra to hold back a flinch from her muscle memory. 

“You deserve it—both of you. You are stronger than we ever were, and will go farther than us,” Razz assured her. “I’ve watched both of you grow from the very days you two stumbled into my neck of the woods. I know that you will both make wonderful mothers.”

With that, the small break was over—and Adora tensed as a new wave of pressure came and it suddenly became hard to breath again as the contraction worsened.

“Oh stars…”, Adora grumbled through her teeth and she tried not to squirm on the cot. 

Madame Razz repositioned herself as she watched, “Now… I believe it’s time we get started, do you?”, she looked up to both Catra and Adora—who nodded vigorously. 

Razz chuckled, “Alrighty, then Catra dear, could you please try to sit behind Adora and support her while I work down on this end of things?”

Catra nodded, and got up and carefully moved Adora so that she could slide in back of her. Adora quickly found and gripped Catra’s hands tightly from behind her, as she sat up slightly in between her legs for support. She tried not to clench her teeth down, but ended up failing anyways, grinding them. At this point, Adora had reached her limit and couldn’t possibly hold in whatever screams she had kept in her throat, and instead—she didn’t try to hold them back. 

Adora was hot, she was sweaty, she was exhausted, and she hurt. 

The blonde cried out as a larger wave of pain coursed through her body, and Adora knew it was time to do something, but she felt like she could pass out at any minute, her body felt so tired. 

She clenched her eyes shut and whined like a scared child, much to her dignity’s dismay.

“Hey, hey, Adora—stay with us, please,” Catra rubbed her knuckles gently, “you’re gonna be just fine, but you have to keep going a little bit longer,” she wiped her damp forehead.

Adora nodded, and then threw her head back to rest in the crook of Catra’s neck as she braced herself. Razz sat on the other end of the bed by her legs, gently holding her knees apart and seemingly more focused than Adora had ever seen the woman. 

Hopefully, at least she really knew what she was doing.

Razz quickly reached for a towel beside her and rolled up her sleeves for a second and then got back into position. “Adora, dearie—it’s about time you push,” she advised as calm as she could.

“N-now?”, Adora choked out.

“I think you’re more than ready, Adora,” Catra murmured into her ear and readjusted her grip on Adora’s hands—anticipating what’s coming next. 

As soon as Adora took in a large breath of air to prepare herself, she felt the next spike in pain slowly build around her abdomen and become an intense fire in her muscles that felt like it could just about rip her apart. The pressure was too much, and Adora released a cry that had been building in her throat, until all she could do was groan.

Catra frowned and held on as best she could as Adora writhed in bed, she leaned her head in close to hers, “You’ve got this, I’ve got you—we’ve got each other. Keep going.”

She was trying to do her best to be supportive for Adora—although, Catra’s anxiety was through the roof of this little hut. She couldn’t take her mind off of how wrong things had gone for the two of them, after everything they did to prepare for this one moment. 

Adora should be with the best healers in Bright Moon, in the safety of her own room, with all her friends and family there to support her. But instead they ended up in the middle of the woods, and if they hadn’t found Razz, Catra wouldn’t have a clue what she would’ve been able to do.

She didn’t want to admit it—but she couldn’t do this herself.

She was so scared something could go wrong.

But—she just had to remind herself that she was resourceful, and good at improvising. 

And right now, they were improvising just fine.

Adora grunted as she attempted to push for the first time, and she bit her lip again causing the already split lip to spill a dribble of blood down her chin. She clamped her hands onto Catra’s and with what should be a crushing force she basically strangled them—but Catra didn’t mind. 

Adora worked hard to breathe in some air before trying again. Her fatigue was weighing on her, and she was scared that she might not be able to push enough. But she tried to shake the thoughts out of her head and decided to work her hardest before she even thought about the possibility of passing out. She practically growled as she pushed down again, more focused this time.

“Good job, dearie—keep going!”, Razz announced from her end of the bed, “You’re almost there!”

Catra felt a small pinch of relief to hear those words, and the corners of her mouth slightly curved upwards.

She squeezed Adora’s hands back as she pushed again, “Hey, pretty soon if you keep this up—we can finally meet the kid that’s been beating you up so badly these past couple of months...”

Adora nodded again and kept focusing on breathing and pushing, finally finding a pattern that seemed to work for her, over the course of what seemed like an eternity in her mind. Although, it had only been more than a few minutes. 

“Give me one more good push, Adora dear, and I promise you can rest,” Razz insisted as she focused on the situation at hand. 

Catra gripped her hands and held her tight in anticipation and Adora bit down on her jaw so hard she thought she might break a tooth, and a low groan sounded through her teeth till it rose in volume to become a cry. She felt as if her muscles were on fire and sweat stuck her hair to her forehead and neck, her hands trembled and she sobbed—she poured the last of her energy into the final push.

She could feel how close she was, but it felt like the last stretch was always the longest.

She grit her teeth—she couldn’t let go, she reminded herself.

Adora squeezed her eyes shut again and screamed, and Catra still held on tight—until, it was like a dam broke and a large wave of relief flooded over her as she felt her own body relax slightly, and the sound of crying almost instantly filled Madame Razz’s entire little shack. 

She felt Catra let out a sigh of relief, and she allowed herself to breathe in deep.

Adora wanted to see what was going on, but she kept her eyes closed—partly because she was scared that this was all some elaborate dream, or because she suddenly felt as if they were made of lead.

The crying continued as Razz held a small baby in her hands by the foot of the bed—she was now carefully dabbing a wet cloth to the baby’s small and frail body to clean them off. 

Catra stared in disbelief with Adora resting in her arms, as Razz took a longer scrap of cloth and quickly wrapped it around the wiggly baby. She looked from the crying child and then to Catra with a smile.

“I think she’s wonderful, dearies…”, and carefully she brought the bundle over to Adora’s chest and laid her there. Catra took she and Adora’s arms to wrap underneath the baby, in order to support the head. The small bundle’s cries were soon stifled by their embrace.

“Job well done, Adora—I knew you were a very strong girl!”, Razz remarked once her end of the work was finished, and she could look at the three of them together.

Although Catra was suddenly at a loss for words, she knew she needed to say something.

“Adora—hey,” she hushed, “Adora, please open your eyes… I think you’ll wanna see this,” Catra genuinely smiled down at her, albeit a little concerned about how worn out her other half looked. She hadn’t even opened her eyes yet, and her breath was ragged. 

Gently, Catra shifted them all on the cot so that she could slip out to help Adora and rest her head down on the pillows. “Please Adora—just for a minute and then you can rest again,” she whined quietly, “Razz says the baby is a girl...”

Adora listened—and curiosity and excitement beat the immense weight of exhaustion for the time being. She groaned and her face contorted in what looked like pain, and Catra grimaced. 

“Adora…?”, Catra brushed Adora’s bangs from her face again, and kept her cool hand on her forehead.

The blonde sighed out another large breath and whimpered slightly, but then her eyelids managed to flutter open—pleading for sleep. 

Catra gave her a sympathetic look, “Hey you…” the corner of her mouth turned upwards, “That wasn’t so hard was it?”

Adora, despite being ready to pass out a minute ago, somehow managed to scoff at the slight sarcasm, “I’d like to see you try,” she murmured as she squirmed uncomfortably on the bed, and hissed quietly as she tried to sit up more.

Catra leaned forward and moved the pillows behind her and tucked Adora back into the covers of the cot. 

“Okay—yeah sure, maybe it's not for me so much,” Catra laughed, “I think it was worth a little pain right?”

She slowly pulled back a little bit of the rag the bundle was swaddled in for them to peer at their kid for what was really the first time.

Adora shifted the baby in her arms to look down at her small, pinched face—and Adora let a small, surprised gasp escape her lips as she studied her daughter’s face.  
She had slightly tan skin, soft to the touch as she wiggled in Adora’s grasp. A few small little freckles danced across her chubby cheeks and her eyes were still squeezed shut from the outside world. 

Adora ran a gentle finger across her cheek and the little baby made a funny gurgling sound—that then managed to make Catra giggle quietly. Adora slipped off the part of the rag covering their daughter’s head in the swaddle to peek at what was underneath as carefully as she could, afraid of damaging her new, tiny head.

Underneath she found and thick tuft of light brown hair, the color of warm caramel from a festival in Thaymor. Not as dark as Catra’s hair color, but not a soft blonde like Adora’s. She ran her hand through the soft fluff and snugged the swaddle back over her head to keep her warm. 

Catra smirked, “So no ears, huh? I was kinda crossing my fingers she’d be a little more like me,” she said while patting Adora on the shoulder.

“I guess you’ll just have to have the next one to find out,” Adora quietly joked.

Catra glared at her, “The next one? Adora, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself. Well, that and we just settled that this wasn’t really my thing…”

Adora turned her head away from the baby and smiled at Catra, “Months ago I didn’t think that this would really be my thing too, so don’t get ahead yourself,” she giggled.

Catra snorted and shook her head. 

Razz came back over with two more mugs of steaming liquid for the two of them, “I thought you dearies could use another cup of tea, afterall, you two have had quite the exciting journey to my little home—haven’t you?”

Catra raised an eyebrow, “More than just exciting,” she reached out for the mugs and put Adora’s on the floor and grasped hers between her palms, “thank you Razz.”

Adora looked up at the old woman kindly, “Yeah—thank you so much, for everything you’ve done for us.”

Madame Razz simply smiled back, “Of course—you’re both always welcome here, you know... I don’t have much of anything better to do than help out anyways!”

She turned around and grabbed some bandages off the nearby shelf and rummaged for a jar of pinkish gloop that must have been some kind of salve. 

After, she turned to the both of them, “I’ll leave you to it for a while—I’m going out to tend to Swift Wind’s booboo so that he will feel good enough to take all of you home when the time comes!” And out the curtain door she went.

Suddenly the quiet settled upon the three of them in the cottage, rain being the only buffer to how still everything had become. Catra looked down at her warm beverage and then chugged the rest of it down, letting the warmth fill her chest and relax her muscles.

Adora quietly inspected the baby’s every move in her arms while smiling so hard her cheeks flushed. Catra watched the two of them together.

Looking down she found the other cup of tea, and picked it up. “Hey, I know you’re having fun but you should really have another drink and probably rest,” Catra sighed as she broke the pleasurable silence. 

Adora sighed too, and shifted the baby again, looking to Catra, “Would you hold her for a bit?”

Catra smirked and held out the tea, “Would I? I’ll trade you for her—with this.”

Adora turned on her side a bit and handed Catra the baby girl and latched onto the mug of tea.

Catra shifted to support the baby’s head and suddenly found she wasn’t sure what to do with the warmth that radiates from the bundle and into her chest. She couldn’t help but stare at the little squinched up face.

Adora took a sip while watching and let out a big yawn. She chuckled, “With another cup of this down, I think I’m going to pass out soon…” She took another sip, “I think we should name her while I’m still awake, so we can start using a name instead of just using ‘her’.”

Catra smiled, “Sure,” she got up from the stool while holding their baby safely, and crawled onto the bed beside Adora—who scooted over with some effort.

Catra came in close and the two were pressed up against each other.

Catra shifted their daughter so that the two of them could look down at her, and she squirmed while making a small coo before she settled again into Catra’s chest.

Catra laughed at the cuteness, “Okay—What are you think’n?”

Adora nursed her tea in thought, “I think we should keep up this -ra thing we both have going for us…”

The feline’s tail twitched and she laughed again, “Really?”

“I think we have to!”, Adora smiled.

Catra sighed, “Okay, alright, of course we do.”

Adora nudged Catra with her elbow, “Now what do you have in mind?”

She looked up at the thatched ceiling and searched around in her head, “Well, I had two that I thought about…”

“Well then let’s hear one, and I’ll share one,” Adora offered.

Catra cleared her throat before she started, “Um sure—what about Sara? I was thinking it’d be a cool name if we had a girl because it means princess… And like, I always tease you and call you princess. That, and the fact that it’s a good Magicat name I found while I stayed in Half Moon a while back.” She turned her head to the side to gauge Adora’s reaction.

Adora thought for a second and gave her a sheepish grin, “I like how it sounds, but—do you really want our daughter to have an inside joke as her name?”

Catra laughed, “Oh come on, it’d be endearing, Adora…”, she drawled. 

The blonde raised a hand to interject, “I know, I know—but consider this one… What about Cora?”

Catra’s eyebrows raised, “Like… With a C?”

“Yes, because it’d be like a mix of both our names, Catra… and Adora… Cora!”, Adora shrugged.

Catra blinked and then snorted, “Adora… You’re the love of my life but we are both helpless dumbasses who probably shouldn’t be allowed to have a magic child.”

“You know that’s not true!”, she shot back.

The feline smirked, “Only half of it maybe…”

Adora rubbed at her face, “Okay, so you don’t like Cora?”, she asked. 

Catra peered down at the tiny being curled up on her chest and her smirk melted into a softer smile, “It sounds really cool—I’ll give you that. But, like, it’s too predictable… We need something that sets her apart from everyone else, you know—show how unique she is!”

“Got it—lemme think,” Adora hummed.

Catra nudged her gently, “Wait you never heard my other option!”

Adora shook her head, “Oh sorry, what’s your other idea?”, and she paused to hear her out.

“Well, I found another name by actually doing some research…”, she began.

Adora patted her shoulder, “Catra, finally doing homework I see?”

Catra’s smile grew as if she were proud of herself, “I know—big surprise, but also… Bow actually helped me find this one.”

“Oh really?”, Adora was really curious to hear this one now.

Catra rolled her eyes, “Yeah… He said he’d heard a name that he thought we’d like and I looked up what it meant in the library.”

Adora reached over and used a gentle finger to run over the baby’s cheek that wasn’t pressed against Catra’s chest, “So? What did you and Bow think of?”

Catra watched the baby try to stretch in her swaddle at her mother’s touch. 

Catra turned to Adora, “How about we name her Nora?”, she asked.

Adora found a tiny fist peeking out of the rap and poked it softly, watching tiny fingers open up.“Nora… That’s nice—it sounds strong,” she answered.

Catra’s tail twitched excitedly, “Exactly, and it means ‘honor’ because it’s like short for the old name, Honora.”

Adora nodded and focused on their child for a moment, ceasing to play with her as she squirmed slightly.

Catra peered at her, “What are you thinking?”

She had that look on her face she got when she’s really in thought.

Adora looked up at the ceiling like they would do when they would lay in bed at home and talk after a long day, “I’m thinking that... I really like Nora, it seems right—you know?”

Catra agreed, “Yeah, I think it suits her.”

“So—Nora it is?”, Adora smiled and nodded as she asked.

Catra carefully booped the baby’s forehead with her finger, “Nora it is.”

The little one sighed at the feeling of the touch, and managed to squirm an arm out of her soft prison. Adora giggled and poked the little fist again, prompting her to grasp onto Adora’s calloused index finger. Catra watched, amused at the small sounds that she made in reaction.

As soon as Adora withdrew her finger from her daughter's grasp, Nora opened her eyes for the first time—they were a bright blue. Like Adora’s, and one of Catra’s. She looked around, not quite focusing on anything in particular but mostly she was shooting a deadly glare at Adora for moving her finger out of her reach.

“Hey little one,” Adora gasped at the sight of her eyes.

Catra tried to grab Nora’s attention and rubbed her back with a light hand, “Did you hear that? Your name is Nora now, because you’re going to grow up to be strong…”

Adora coughed, “And kind.”

“And kind…”, Catra added.

Adora leaned her head on Catra’s shoulder, “And this is Catra—she’s your mama. And I’m Adora, your other mum…”

The two of them watched as Nora’s tiny lips opened and she yawned heavily, staring intently back at them with her little blue eyes once she finished.

“You and your mum probably need some serious sleep…”, Catra sighed, and moved to place Nora back on Adora’s chest while she removed the empty mug from her wife’s grasp.

Adora scooped Nora up and relinquished her from her warm and restraining prison she was already wriggling out of, “She probably needs to eat first—which is something I need to figure out how to do…” 

“You think Razz could walk you through it?”, Catra watched as Nora suddenly became restless compared to a minute ago.

Adora pursed her lips, “Maybe…”

“I’ll go get her,” Catra put the mug down and got off the bed to go find Madame Razz outside.

“Ugh, why do I get the feeling that this is going to be embarrassing?”, Adora quietly whined under her breath.

Catra turned back to her and crossed her arms, “It won’t—because it’s important and it’s just how life works. Don’t feel ashamed of it,” she assured her.

Adora yawned again, and groaned, “Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”

“Good, I think you should,” Catra winked before turning heel.

She opened up the curtain to outside, and the chilly spring breeze of the late morning made her shiver slightly. It finally stopped raining and the grey clouds had begun to drift away. 

She found Razz bandaging up the gash on Swift Wind’s wing tenderly. She really was just a sweet old woman when she wasn’t doing her crazy witchy sort of thing or sassing some Horde soldier out of the woods. 

Catra tapped on her shoulder, “Hey, Adora would like some help inside if you’re able.”

Razz turned around, “Ah good—you should take a break and get some fresh air for a bit, dearie.”

She finished applying the bandage and Swift Wind flexed his wing outward to test its mobility. 

He tucked it back to his side and nudged Razz with his snout, “Thanks for the help,” he smiled.

Razz scratched his chin, “Anything for a noble steed like you.”

Razz turned back to Catra, “I’ll go in and see to her, while you catch Swifty here back up to speed.”

Catra nodded in silent thanks, and watched Razz disappear back into the shack. 

Swift Wind paced a little bit on his legs, “How’d everything go?”, he asked tentatively.

Catra took the moment to stretch out her back by reaching for the bit of light peeking through the trees of the forest canopy, “I think it was difficult, but of course she did a good job,” she answered with sigh.

Swift Wind glanced down at his hooves which were pawing at the dirt, “It sounded like a struggle in there…”

Once Catra had moved around enough she crossed her arms, “I’m sorry you had to sit and wait through that, bud.”

“It’s fine—I get it. It’s just been a long day and I was worried,” he glanced up quickly to assure her.

She furrowed her brow a little, “Did you feel anything?”

It was Swift Wind’s turn to sigh, “Maybe just a little, it was kinda scary…”

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose, “Jeez Swifty, I’m sorry I didn’t check on you sooner,” she murmured.

Swift Wind shook his head, “No, no, no—you were busy! Don’t worry about me… But do you guys have a plan for now?”

Catra looked back to the cottage behind her, “I’m thinking she’ll just need a little while longer to recuperate—I don’t want her to rush things… And I think she’ll probably feel most of the blunt of what she did today, either later or tomorrow. So we should probably stay put here with Razz just in case.”

Swift Wind offered a smile, “I’d like to stay put for a while…”

Catra couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, “I know, sleep sounds really good buddy.”

He came toward her still smiling and gave her a big nudge with his snout back towards their little temporary home, “You should probably go back to check on your other half and get some shut-eye. You look like a mess!”

“You do too, feather-brains. You should also take a nap,” she shoved him back playfully.

Somehow his smile only grew bigger, “I plan on doing just that!”, he happily announced.

Catra found herself at the door and turned to open the curtain, “Hey, wait! Did you want to know the baby’s name?”

Swift Wind’s ears perked up, “What’d you guys settle on?”

“Nora,” Catra grinned.

“Nora…”, Swift Wind tried it out for the first time, “I love it! She’ll be a valiant warrior!”

“Thanks, bud,” she said softly before she slipped back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AHAHAHAH IM NOT DEAD YET BABEY!  
> Been super busy but I’m here now!  
> Hope this was satisfying, there will be more to come.  
> Anyways, enjoy lil Nora.  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated, I love talking to you guys.


	10. Good To Hear From You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The little fam takes a moment to rest and catch up with some friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a while!  
> Have a little chapter before I post some big stuff.  
> Lots more coming!  
> Also, note: After recent events, Glimmer is still queen in this AU, but she’s gotten her mother back in this future and she’s found her father. Now they are just retired and glad to be with their daughter.

As Catra walked back into the small room, she found a half-lidded Adora blinking to keep herself awake while sitting up slightly to nurse a tiny Nora in her arms. 

Both looked about ready to pass out when Catra quietly walked over to sit back down on the cot beside the two of them.

Adora perked up slightly as her wife came down and sat beside her, “Hey,” she breathed, “look—I figured it out… I knew she seemed pretty hungry.”

Catra laughed while leaning back, “It’s a tough life being a helpless baby.”

Adora smirked, “It’s even rougher having to feed one—it’s like she’s sucking all of the little bit of energy I had left out of my body.”

Catra smirked back, “I knew you could do it,” she put her arms behind her head and relaxed.

“You try coaxing a newborn to shove a—“

“Adora you’re ruining the moment here.”

“I’m a mom now Catra, so I can talk about as many of my mom functions as I want.”

“Adora I get it, you have mom rights now…”

“You do too, you know…”

“I know—it’s pretty rad.”

Adora released a big yawn and tried to cover it up with her hand. After, Nora suddenly stopped suckling and squirmed fussily to get comfy in her mum’s arms. Adora noticed she was done with her meal, and wiped herself off with a towel on her shoulder before pulling her tunic back up.

After a miniscule burp or two, Catra watched Adora lean back and settle Nora’s head down beneath her chin. Without the swaddle on anymore, Catra finally saw just how tiny their baby was as Adora tucked her gently into her hand while putting the other one on Nora’s warm back. Nora’s little chest gently rose and fell as her eyes closed. 

Adora’s own eyes closed as she took a big breath in and fidgeted beneath the blanket, trying to get comfortable on the cot. As soon as she seemed to settle down, Catra’s ears twitched towards the discarded saddlebag in the corner of the room. Underneath the bag’s flap, their communicator rang a familiar sound of beeps. Adora sighed and cracked an eye open to send a pleading glare at Catra to answer it before it woke the baby.

Of course she was already on it, but she nodded and got up from her perch on the bed to grab it anyways. Upon pulling it out, Catra read that the signal was coming from Bright Moon on the screen.

Suspiciously, she swiped to answer the call, careful as to hide Adora and Nora from the background.

As the static cleared—two friendly faces appeared on the screen and Catra released a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. 

Glimmer’s face instantly relaxed as she saw sight of Catra’s annoyed stare through the screen, “Oh thank the stars you answered, we were so worried…”, she breathed.

Bow gleamed from beside the young queen in the frame, “We called to update you guys! We are just about clear here, just shooing out and capturing any soldiers left behind from the siege. The Horde retreated sooner than we thought… Their troops are really suffering without solid leadership!”

Catra smirked, “Good to hear they aren’t the same without me…”

“Oh! Don’t even get me started!”, Glimmer looked exasperated as she ran her hands down her face, and Catra got to see just how equally tired she was compared to both herself and Adora.

“I promise, I get it. We encountered a few scouts across our path, but we managed to handle them pretty well—didn’t we Adora?”, Catra walked over to the cot and sat down on the edge again.

Adora was too busy nodding off to pay much attention to the conversation, although she perked up again at the mention of her name.

“Who ya talk’n to?”, she mumbled.

Catra smiled, “Oh, just your pals, good ol’ arrow boy and queen sparkles…”

Adora still had heavy purple bags under her eyes, but it was like Catra lit a match that rekindled her fire.

She craned her neck from where she laid in the cot, and forgot her volume while Nora was asleep on her chest, “Glimmer! Bow! It’s so good to hear from you!”

Catra laughed and pressed a finger to her lips quietly, then she pointed to the small being tucked up under Adora’s chin.

Adora blushed and settled back down. 

Glimmer took hold of the other communicator they were talking through, “Adora? Adora! It’s so good to hear from you too! Everything is going to be fine! I’m so sorry you had to deal with this mess…”

Bow put a hand on Glimmer’s shoulder on the screen, “Look—just hang in there a little longer and you can come back here and we’ll have everything ready for you guys to stay here for a while.”

Catra pinched her brow and almost laughed, and then she did without really meaning to.

Glimmer eyed her cautiously as she did so, “Catra?”

And Bow did the same, “What’s wrong that you’re not telling us?”

Catra snorted, “Let’s just say we also hit a few bumps in the road… Other than Horde scouts wanting to capture us…”

“What do you mean…?”, Bow asked.

Catra turned herself so that Adora could be seen in the frame, including the small sleeping baby on her chest. 

Adora smiled anxiously, a little self-conscious, “Uh, surprise?”

Both Glimmer and Bow went dead on their end of the call, and Catra would have suspected they hung up if she couldn’t see their open mouths on the screen. 

Adora watched as Glimmer’s face quietly worked through a wide expanse of emotions in the span of no time at all, and Bow’s eyes were glued on Nora.

“She’s so small!”, he squealed in disbelief. 

Glimmer paid no attention to her starstruck companion, “You had a baby in the woods?!”

Adora winced at the tone of her friends’ voices, “Yes?”

Glimmer’s face softened to worry from the harsh look of shock, “I’m so sorry you guys had to go through that alone! That must of been so terrifying—I’m so, so, so sorry it ruined you plans Adora!”

The blonde shook her head gently, “It’s okay! Really!”

She gave a quiet laugh and continued, “It wasn’t that bad, a little shaky at first, but Catra pulled through!”

“Hey, you’re the one who pushed her out, you did all the work—cut yourself some slack,” Catra looked back at her smiled.

“Yeah but you and Razz helped a lot... I don’t know what would’ve happened if Catra hadn’t found Razz!”

Glimmer tipped a hand up to her forehead, “That crazy witch lady?”

Adora nodded eagerly, “Yes! She’s the best!”

“Okay—but I'm pretty sure she found us, not that I found her!”, Catra laughed while she pressed a finger and a thumb to the bridge of her nose.

“See? Plus we had each other so, it was fine.”

Glimmer’s mouth slowly turned up into a slightly less worried smile, “Cute! But we still have to get you to Bright Moon at some point… I want to meet this baby in question, but after you guys are checked out by the healers.”

Adora’s head leaned back and she closed her eyes, “Right… Can’t wait,” she mumbled.

Glimmer watched Adora through the screen and her smile widened, “You can relax once you get here, and get cleared by actual professionals, I promise,” she assured her.

Catra raised a skeptical eyebrow—examining her claws, ”Bold of you to assume that Razz and I didn’t deliver a baby like pros. It almost sounds like you doubt Madame Razz’s skill in this matter... Or mine?”

”Oh no! No, no, no, just...”, the queen nervously laughed while shaking her head, “I just want to be extra careful—I know this baby is super important to you guys and I know luck hasn’t been on our side recently!”

Catra wasn’t quick to believe she was telling the truth and just being overly protective of her best friend—or that the Alliance wouldn’t make Adora work while they stayed there with the baby. 

“I know, I just… I just don’t want to have to keep moving around Glim,” Adora sighed.

Glimmer composed herself, “Understood, Adora—really. We’ll get you guys home.”

Suddenly, Glimmer glanced to her side and was just as surprised as Catra and Adora on the other end of the call, to hear a small sob wrack through Bow. 

Glimmer turned to him and rubbed Bow’s back as he hiccuped with tears streaming down his cheeks and dribbling off of his chin.

“What’s going on with you Bow?”, Catra‘s brow now furrowed as she watched from her end of the call.

“I can’t believe you guys… You guys did it, all on your own! And you made this—this lovely little bean right here,” he pointed to where Nora snoozed on Adora’s chest, “and it’s just so bittersweet, I can’t—I’m a sucker for happy endings! I still remember when you guys could first hug each other—let alone even look at one another, when you two finally started to patch things up!”

Catra scoffed, “No need to cry over it though!”

“This is just my natural reaction—I get it from my dad, Catra. I can’t help it!”, the archer wiped away some stray tears on the corner of his eyes with the back of his hand. He sniffled.

Catra rolled her eyes and shook her head, before she offered him a toothy smirk, “Cry away then.”

Bow squeezed his eyes shut and nodded, “Don’t worry, I will—just know that I love you guys.”

“We all love you too! Once I’m up to traveling the distance through the woods you’ll get to see Nora, and the two of us,” Adora smiled reassuringly. 

Catra nodded, “Give Adora some time to heal up, and we’ll make the trek back to Bright Moon. As soon as we can.”

Bow sighed a shaky breath and wiped a few more stray tears away, “As much as we want to see you, take your time and be safe coming home!”

Catra looked to Adora, and Adora looked to Catra, “Will do,” they said in unison. 

Bow and Glimmer quietly pressed their hands together up against the screen, and Adora reached up a hand to meet theirs halfway—as if they could feel each others touch through a holographic image. They’d done this a few time before when they were apart.

Catra watched them stay like that for a minute, until Adora brought her hand back down to hold Nora against her chest.

Adora was hesitant to break the quiet moment, “See you soon guys, I love talking to you, but I need some sleep…”

As if on cue, she yawned, barely being able to cover it with a hand fast enough. 

Bow waved with a watery smile, “Understood, we’ll leave you to it, Adora.”

“Rest up!”, Glimmer smiled sweetly, and she ended the call. 

The screen flickered and the glow of it dimmed until it was dark.

Catra rested the device on her lap as she sat on the edge of the bed. She looked over to Adora beside her, and found her eyes already fluttering—her chest softly rising and falling in tandem to Nora’s. The brunette smiled without meaning to as she stared. 

Catra looked back to the tracker pad and set it down in the small stool not far away from the bed. 

She had made sure to turn it completely off this time.

She pulled her legs up, and rested her back down beside Adora’s side. Catra curled inwards protectively on Adora’s shoulder, and there she listened to their faint breaths as they fell asleep.

“Goodnight guys,” she laughed quietly, and she too drifted off not long after. Exhaustion catching up to her as it washed over her in a tidal wave.

A warm rumble resonated in her chest while she slept, and the gentle purr spread throughout wherever the three of them touched. 

Catra hoped unconsciously, that if this was some sick dream—that she’d never have to wake up from it... Stay hidden away in the woods for just a bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IM NOT DEAD, AGAIN!!!  
> I’ve been so busy, and I took sometime to go back and work on some stuff before coming back to this story for a little bit.  
> I read a lot of other people’s work and brushed up on my skills.  
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and future ones, I’ve got a lot of fluff planned. I think we will need it with the new season.  
> I’ll try to update my other story soon but I just don’t want to lose sight or burn out either. I’ve had major writers block recently and I want to write these out in a very specific way—gotta do it right.  
> Enjoy! Updates will happen slowly as per usual, hopefully you guys find it worth it.
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated—I love reading your thoughts.

**Author's Note:**

> Ugh, why did I write another fic???  
> I needed another outlet I guess.  
> Sooo, enjoy the Catradora mom fluff!  
> There will be much more to come ;)  
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated here!


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